


Dragonspeaker

by Silky_Sands



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: ...hopefully, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Family, Friendship, Gen, I may or may not have shoved in a bunch of headcanons in here, Leaf hardly had anything that resembled a personality in L2, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Sorry Not Sorry, Yes this is a Dragonslayer sequel fanfic, so i fixed that, stop judging me-
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 36,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26800387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silky_Sands/pseuds/Silky_Sands
Summary: Taking place not long after the events of Dragonslayer, Wren, Sky, Ivy, and Leaf are on the search for the mysterious golden dragon - meanwhile Rowan, Cranberry, Grove, and Thyme are working on building a town where humans can be safe and in Valor, Brook deals with the aftermath of the Dragonslayer’s lies.
Relationships: Brook/Lark (Wings of Fire), Cranberry/Grove/Rowan (Wings of Fire), Daffodil/Violet (Wings of Fire), Ivy & Leaf (Wings of Fire), Ivy & Sky (Wings of Fire), Ivy/Wren (Wings of Fire), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ahahaha yes I started working on the Dragonslayer sequel- while I really wanted to work on the sequel to A Violet's Solace, I kind of realised that I would need to write this first before working on any of my nextgen stuff? And I wanted another excuse to write more about my ships, shhh-
> 
> Anyways, some notes y'all might want to keep in mind before you start reading:  
> \- There will be alternating POVs in this, except there aren't just three set POVs, if that makes sense. While that may seem messy it makes it easier for me so I can go over other plot/character elements that I can't get with just three POVs. But for reference the POVs I'll tend to stick with the most are Rowan, Wren, and Brook  
> \- I hate the Leaf x Ivy ship with a burning passion for it is my notp sorry but nope not today I'm writing parts of it only to address the issues within the ship and I have headcanons against it anyhow (so if you like this ship...sorry but this plan ain't budging one bit. this is _my_ fanfic and my fanfic foremost, so feel free to leave if you want because of that)  
> \- This fic won't have a set schedule, most likely. I lose and gain inspiration at random and I have a life outside of writing. I do try to get chapters done quickly when I have the motivation to write them, however.  
> \- For those who are curious, yes this takes place around the same time as A Violet's Solace, though the first few chapters take place slightly before it. You don't have to read it to understand the stuff going on in Valor, but all you need to know is that Daffodil and Violet are dumb idiots in love
> 
> That's about it, I think? Without further ado, here's Dragonspeaker :>

**WREN**

Wren rubbed her eyes, blinking several times. She was greeted with a gentle ray of sunlight; presumably dawn. Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed Ivy and Leaf nearby, still asleep - she still found it odd to be travelling with other humans, after living alone with Sky for so long. It was odd in a nice sort of way, though - she was with humans she knew she could trust and genuinely liked. Sky had began to stir next to her, yawning a little.

Getting on her knees, she sat up, stretching. She’d been used to waking up early, usually rising with the sun - it was also useful for when she and Sky needed to leave so they could stay on the move. _I wonder how quickly Ivy and Leaf will get used to this,_ She wondered. _I mean, maybe Leaf is an early riser nowadays but…_

Soon Sky was more or less awake, though he still seemed rather groggy. Wren smiled, albeit mainly to herself.

“Good morning, Sky,” She greeted him, chuckling softly.

He grinned back. “Morning to you too.” He glanced over in Leaf and Ivy’s direction. “It’s going to be so exciting travelling with more people!”

Wren gave him a smile, nodding. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about traveling with others yet, but she was glad that Sky seemed to be enjoying it. She glanced over in the same direction, a smirk creeping onto her face. _Speaking of other people…those two must be late sleepers or something,_ She concluded. _Nothing I can’t fix._

Sky seemed to notice her expression. “Wren?”

She glanced back, still grinning. “What?” She replied innocently.

“What are you planning? The look on your face practically gives you away.”

Averting her gaze from his, she replied, “Just waking Ivy and Leaf up.”

Sky frowned. “Well, be nice about it. I don’t trust that expression.”

Rolling her eyes, Wren walked over to Ivy, who was curled up against the grass, sleeping soundly. Crouching down, she lightly shook Ivy’s shoulder.

“Come on, Ivy. Wake up,” She murmured, still shaking her.

She seemed to be waking up, though Ivy was slow to rise - she reluctantly sat up, stretching and yawning as she did so. Wren could tell there were bags underneath her eyes, though not entirely noticeable - it did make Wren wonder just how much sleep Ivy actually managed to get last night. Before Wren could say anything else, Ivy seemed to nod off a little, almost falling on her back.

Ivy gave Wren a drowsy smile. “Oh…morning, Wren.”

Wren almost let out a snort of amusement. “Morning to you, too. Did you manage to get enough sleep last night? You seem out of it.”

“Oh? No, no. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” She replied, though it sounded more like a yawn in Wren’s opinion.

 _I doubt that,_ She thought, but she didn’t say it out loud - she had the feeling that Ivy wasn’t going to answer that question any time soon. _Besides, she looks too tired to even pay attention._

Wren lightly nudged her shoulder. “Maybe while we’re travelling Sky will let you sleep on his back.”

“That’d…that’d be great.” Ivy yawned once more. She stretched her arms one last time before looking back at Wren. “So why do we need to be up so early, again?”

“I just want to be on the move as soon as possible. I don’t want to waste daylight,” Wren replied as matter-of-factly. Ivy just groaned in response, rubbing the crust out of her eyes.

Sky came over to them, giving Ivy a cheerful grin. “Morning, Ivy!”

Ivy returned his gesture, albeit still tired. “Morning to you too.” Now rubbing her other eye, she mumbled, “Sorry I’m not much of an early riser. I just find it difficult to wake up so early…”

“That’s alright,” Sky replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’m not much of an early riser either. Wren’s the one who insists on waking up this early, anyways…”

Laughing, Wren nodded. “That’s true! You’ve always been something of a slug in the morning.”

Sky scoffed, rolling his eyes. “But you are the one who can never stay in one spot.”

“What? No!”

Sky turned to Ivy, amused. “It’s true, you know. One time when we just woke up she’d been so insistent on moving on that we skipped breakfast!”

“We got food afterwards!” Raising an eyebrow, she added, “And besides, if I hadn’t gotten you to move, we’d have been staring at that snail for hours.”

Sky chortled. “I can’t help that snails are so adorable!”

Wren smiled. “I know you can’t.”

Ivy let out a giggle, taking Wren by surprise. Wren turned to face her, tilting her head.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh, I wasn’t - your interactions with each other are adorable,” Ivy remarked, still smiling. “It just makes me really excited that humans and dragons are able to get along! I’m so glad I get to travel with you guys! Agh, I can’t wait to spread the word about dragon-human communication!”

Wren couldn’t help but grin at her - while they hadn’t talked as much as Wren would’ve liked to prior, she had always found Ivy’s little outbursts of excitement adorable. It made her thrilled to find another human who loved dragons and understood that they were just as complex as they were, just like herself. _Well, and Rose,_ She added mentally. _But the fact that Ivy’s my age and also loves dragons like I do just makes me so happy._ Wren tried not to dwell on it often, though.

“So you weren’t in it just because Leaf came with?” Wren joked, raising an eyebrow.

Ivy frowned, confused. “I don’t get…oh. _Oh_.” She shook her head upon realising. “No, I just came with on my own accord. Even if he wasn’t coming with, I’d still want to travel with you both.”

Wren blinked in shock, though she could feel her cheeks flushing out of embarrassment. _Okay, maybe don’t joke about her and Leaf next time, Wren,_ She decided. _I wasn’t expecting that for an answer, though. From what Leaf described, she seemed to like him back?_

_I might have to ask him about that later._

“Wren? You alright?” She asked.

Wren was dragged out of her own thoughts. “Uh…yeah. It was a stupid joke, don’t worry about it.”

Ivy didn’t look the slightest bit convinced, but shrugged. She instead turned to Leaf, lightly tapping his shoulder.

“Hey, Leaf, wake up,” She murmured.

He woke up more willingly than Ivy had, though he still seemed somewhat tired. He gave Ivy a small smile, who returned it with a soft laugh. Leaf turned to Wren, blinking a few times.

“How long have you guys been waiting for me to wake up?”

Wren shrugged. “Not too long. I woke up Ivy awhile ago, but you didn’t miss much, I promise.”

This seemed to relieve him, somewhat. “So where are we going, then? If you haven’t decided that without me already.”

“Well, you and Ivy are still planning to find that golden dragon, right? I’ve been thinking on it and maybe poking around Valor’s ruins some more might help,” Wren admitted. She glanced back at Ivy. “You and Leaf encountered her there, right?”

Ivy nodded. “Yes! Since we left Valor I’ve been wondering about that, and since she took the sand dragons’ treasure, she might be somewhere around that area! Or maybe further into the desert? I’m not sure.”

Leaf smiled at Ivy. “I think you’re right. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot, would it?”

Glancing back at Sky, Wren rested a hand on his shoulder. “You think you can make it back to the ruins?” Sky nodded, a determined glint in his eyes.

Her attention was drifted away once she felt a light tapping on her shoulder. It was Ivy, who had a hesitant expression on her face.

She mumbled, “Could we eat something before leaving, though? I’m starving…”

 _We could always hunt or gather fruits on the way there,_ Wren wanted to reply, but didn’t have the heart to say it to Ivy’s face. _She probably isn’t as used to travelling like the rest of us, I guess._

Nodding in response, Wren shrugged. “I suppose so. It shouldn’t be too hard to find something edible in the forest. We can go hunting for a bit, if that helps.”

“Well, I’ll just get some blueberries for myself,” Sky replied, grimacing at the mention of hunting. “I still don’t understand how any of you like eating meat.”

Leaf turned to Ivy, a hopeful expression on his face. “You want to go hunting together?”

Ivy took a few steps back, shaking her head. “No, but thanks for the offer.” She instead glanced at Sky, asking, “Could I help? I prefer fruits over meat myself.”

Sky gave her a small nod, much to Ivy’s delight. Wren glanced at her brother, who seemed mostly surprised by Ivy declining his offer - and somewhat disappointed, as well. _That must feel awkward as hell,_ She commented dryly to herself, glad she wasn’t in Leaf’s shoes. _I do feel bad for him, though._

“Leaf, I can go hunting with you, if you want,” She offered, hoping to diffuse any tension the two had. He brightened up a bit, though he still seemed vaguely upset. “You go on ahead, I’ll catch up in a bit.”

He had an amused yet bewildered look on his face, but didn’t question it. He took off into the woods, though not without casting a glance over his shoulder every so often. Wren glanced back at Sky and Ivy, who were already chatting merily.

She crossed her arms. “You two will be alright together? On your own?”

“Yep! I’ll make sure nothing awful happens out there, so don’t worry,” Ivy confirmed, nudging Wren in the shoulder. “I promise we’ll meet you and Leaf back at the camp once we’re done gathering fruit.”

“Promise?”

“I just said I promise, you goof!” Ivy teased, giggling a bit. Her laughter dying down, she gave Wren a genuine look. “But I really do promise, Wren. Please try to trust me, okay?”

Wren sighed, nodding. “Okay, okay! I give in.” As she turned around to leave, she added, “Just don’t get yourselves hurt, okay?”

Ivy rolled her eyes in amusement, but gave Wren one last nod before letting Sky guide her into the forest. She ran over to Leaf, who had been tapping his fingers against his arms as he leaned against a nearby tree. He perked up once he saw Wren, something of a smile on his face.

She had to take a moment to catch her breath. “I’m…I’m back.”

Leaf raised an eyebrow. “So what were you three even talking about?”

“Mostly reminding them to be careful.” She frowned. “I’m hoping they know what they’re doing, but I can’t help but worry about them.”

He sighed, nodding slightly. “I get that. I really wanted to go with Ivy, I have my doubts about splitting up. I’d feel a lot better about this if I was with her.”

Wren rolled her eyes, scoffing. “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy! Sometimes you speak about her as if she’s the only thing on your mind.” Think on it a bit more, she added, “But really, I doubt Ivy needs any protection. You might be underestimating her. I’m more concerned about Sky…”

“I’m equally concerned about Sky!” He shot back. Before Wren could interrogate him further, he stopped suddenly, gesturing for her to remain silent.

 _I want to know what that means,_ She griped to no one in particular. As Leaf went ahead once more, she narrowed her eyes. _I’ll figure that out sooner or later._


	2. Chapter 2

**ROWAN**

Rowan could hardly believe it.

Wren was alive, and so was Leaf, even after storming off from the mountain dragon palace. The dragonmancers had finally gotten their crimes exposed. She and Grove were finally out of jail. Rowan thought that it was a pretty great day in of itself, and the mild weather certainly was helping her mood.

She was sitting next to Grove, eating on one of the blueberries that Cranberry had gathered earlier that morning. Cranberry had been getting most of the food for them, as both Rowan and Grove were still feeling weak after being thrown into jail, and Thyme preferred to keep watch for any dragons. Grove was leaning on her shoulder, partially asleep. Thyme had been sitting nearby them, still not touching his own fruit.

Rowan glanced at Grove, gently nudging him awake. “Hey Grove? You awake enough to eat?”

He groaned, opening a single eye to look at her. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“Not really,” Rowan replied, handing him a small chunk of her own blueberry. “Come on, eat up. Cranberry didn’t get these for nothing.”

Grove grumbled underneath his breath, but didn’t argue - he took a few bites out of the blueberry, though he still dozed off on Rowan’s shoulder. Cranberry soon plopped down next to Rowan, practically flying out of the tangled undergrowth. Rowan lightly chuckled as she dropped a few blueberries on her lap.

Cranberry giggled awkwardly. “Sorry, Rowan.”

“Aw, it’s alright,” She responded, handing the fruit back to Cranberry. “You managed to get us all breakfast on your own, don’t apologise.”

Blushing slightly at Rowan’s praise, she grinned. “I guess.” She turned to Thyme, tilting her head. “Thyme? You okay?”

Surprised, he looked back at her. “You’re back already? Huh.” Now taking a few bites of his food, he shrugged. “I…just keeping watch for any dragons, I guess.”

 _I doubt we’ll have as much of a reason to worry, but…I can see why he’s being cautious over it._ After their journey to the mountain dragon palace, Thyme had been more jumpy whenever they stopped briefly in any sort of clearing. While Rowan found it irritating, she couldn’t blame him. _He probably doesn’t want a repeat of Mushroom…but Mushroom actually deserved it. He was a piece of shit._

Grove lightly tapped Rowan’s hand. “More,” He mumbled.

She whipped her head around to face him, chuckling. “Now you’re _demanding_ more? You’re lucky that you’re doing such a good job of being adorable while doing it.” She handed him the rest of the blueberry, already full.

Cranberry snorted. “Is he still tired?”

“Yes, I am,” He snapped, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t know how you manage to be so energetic this early.”

Glancing up at the sky, Cranberry rolled her eyes. “It’s almost noon! I don’t know how you can still be tired after half of the day’s gone!”

Rowan smirked. “You usually wake up at dawn, Cran. I’m still tired myself.”

Giggling, she nodded. “True! I am still used to waking up that early. We- I always had to be up that early back in my troupe. Sleeping in was pretty taboo, if you know what I mean.”

Grove lifted his head to stare at her. “You mean to say it wasn’t allowed, or…?”

“What? No, no! Maybe that wasn’t the best choice of words,” She replied, her cheeks flushing. “It definitely wasn’t encouraged, to say the least. I did it once and I got chewed out so badly for it! Never did that again.”

Rowan raised an eyebrow. “That seems like an unnecessarily harsh reaction to sleeping in.”

Cranberry looked as if she was going to argue, but sighed, nodding. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I didn’t mean to sleep in, either…not my fault that I had to practice so late.”

As they all went quiet, Rowan’s gaze rested on the sack of treasure they had taken from the dragon palace. _How exactly are the four of us supposed to start a whole new town with this?_ She’d been wondering about that since Wren, Leaf, Ivy and Sky had taken off. They had debated it once since they left, but decided to wait until later to discuss their plan in full. _Having instructions on how to go about this would be great._

She remembered what Wren had said about the Indestructible City; it was something about refugees, wasn’t it? _I mean, heading there doesn’t sound like a bad idea in the slightest…but we probably need to find a place to build the town._

Cranberry poking Rowan’s cheeks broke Rowan out of her inner monologue. She turned to Cranberry, sighing.

“Yes, Cranberry?”

She frowned. “You’re making the grumpy face again. Something wrong?”

 _Every time I think about something you always call it my ‘grumpy face.’_ Rowan didn’t want to voice it out loud, though. She didn’t want to start the day debating something stupid with Cranberry, and she’d feel bad about brushing off Cranberry’s concern for her, anyhow.

Rowan shrugged. “Just thinking about our plan. With the treasure, to be blunt.”

“I thought we agreed to make a new town,” Thyme chimed in, now looking at them.

“That’s what I _meant_ ,” Rowan muttered, not bothering to raise her voice.

Grove suddenly sat up. “Rowan, let’s try to _avoid_ a fight right now.”

She huffed, glaring at him. “What? It was obvious what I meant with context, context that he has!”

Thyme groaned, shaking his head. “Okay, okay. I misunderstood. What about our plan were you thinking about?”

“All of it. Like, where are we going to build the town? How and where are we going to get the resources required to start building? Stuff like that,” Rowan explained, ignoring the urge to groan in frustration.

Cranberry hummed to herself. “Maybe somewhere further away from Talisman? I mean, it’d probably be a long walk, but…”

Rowan nodded at her. “As long as it isn’t too close to Talisman, I’m good.” _I never want to be around it again for as long as I live._ “We could move closer to the Indestructible City.”

“No,” Grove immediately snapped, catching her attention. “I don’t want to get too close to a place that big and with that much power.”

Frowning, Rowan crossed her arms. “Like Talisman was any better.”

Grove narrowed his eyes. “I’m not saying it was. I’m just saying, that place is dangerous and I want nothing to do with it. Not now, not then, not ever.”

Cranberry leaned forwards, tilting her head. “Wait, what’s so bad about the Indestructible City? I thought it was one of the safest places for humans to live, or so I’ve been told.”

“Oh, it can be. If you manage to get in,” Grove replied, sighing to himself. “And even then, the current lord of it is…he has a lot of ideas you’d disagree with, I’ll leave it at that.”

Rowan shrugged. “Still would rather that over dragonmancers.”

Grove grimaced, but didn’t comment on it any further. _He knows how I feel about that. Dragonmancers will always be at the top of my list._

“Ah. Well, _our_ town won’t be anything like that _or_ Talisman!” Cranberry raised a fist into the air, accidentally pushing Rowan to the side. _I would hope so._ “Oops. Sorry again, Rowan.”

Rowan sighed. “It’s okay.”

Thyme spoke up once Cranberry sat back down. “Well, finding a place to set up would be nice and all, but it’d be pretty hard to start a new town with just the four of us.”

Rowan tried to resist the urge to scowl. _He’s right and I hate that._ But who would be willing to help? Wren, Leaf, Sky, and Ivy had already left, and she sure as hell did not like the idea of heading back to Talisman to ask around for assistance. _I’d rather die, honestly._

“Oh dear,” Cranberry murmured, rubbing her temple. “She’s making the grumpy face again.”

Grumbling, Rowan folded her arms in even more. “I’m not grumpy, I just hate that Thyme’s right about that.”

Grove raised an eyebrow. “…So you’re grumpy?”

Rowan just silently glared off into space, refusing to answer. Cranberry let out a small snort of laughter, though she gently rubbed Rowan’s back in sympathy. Grove glanced back at Thyme.

“I get that, but where would we go for assistance? I highly doubt we’d be able to get anywhere close to the Indestructible City’s entrance, let alone getting inside - and we all know how Rowan feels about heading back to Talisman.”

“Thank you for noticing,” Rowan muttered to herself. Cranberry gave her shoulder a hard shove in response.

Thyme tipped his head thoughtfully. “Well, maybe Rowan doesn’t have to go with? Two of us could go to Talisman and check, while Rowan and someone else can stay here.”

Rowan frowned. “I don’t like that idea either! I don’t want to be surrounded by people who were fine with sacrificing innocents because the ‘mystical’ dragonmancers said so. No thanks, I’ll pass.”

Cranberry rested her chin on Rowan’s shoulder. “Not all of them knew though, right? What about the ones who had no idea about the sacrifices? Before everything, I mean.”

Grimacing, Grove shrugged. “I mean, the older villagers still let it happen. I’m not entirely sure if I’d feel alright around them, too.”

“No, like…how do I word this?” Cranberry shook her head, groaning. “Rowan, what about your other sisters? Did they know anything about this?”

Rowan had to think for a moment before responding. _Did they know anything about the sacrifices? I don’t think so…_ She never particularly had the chance to tell any of her other siblings the truth about Wren, aside from Leaf - their parents had always been keeping an eye on her since locking her in the cellar. She never exactly felt safe in her own home after that…moving in with Grove had been one of the best days after the event. It also didn’t help with the thoughts that none of her younger siblings would believe her - she could have sworn that she heard her parents’ voices ridiculing her, laughing that her siblings would believe that Wren was sacrificed, or that Rowan would fight for Wren’s life. _I’m not sure what it was that kept me from telling them. But they didn’t know and it’s my fault. They’d know some of the truth by now, I’d guess…_

“ _Rowan_.” Cranberry’s voice broke into her thoughts.

Blinking at her a few times, Rowan shook her head. “Not until Wren said the dragonmancers and our parents tried to sacrifice her, I think.”

Cranberry noticed Rowan’s expression - she sighed, gently wrapping her arms around Rowan’s waist. Rowan could feel her own cheeks heating up, though she didn’t comment on it - she didn’t mind the hug that much, enjoyed it, even. Grove placed his hand on Rowan’s own hands, apparently sharing Cranberry’s sentiments. Even Thyme had scooted closer to the group to comfort Rowan. _Even if my parents never bothered to try, I know my friends will be there for me._

Breaking the moment of silence, Thyme hesitantly asked, “So they likely would have no clue about the sacrifices or be alright with that happening?”

“That’s right,” Rowan confirmed, barely trying to raise the volume of her voice. She didn’t particularly enjoy speaking about this subject. “What about it?”

“We could try seeing if they would be interested in helping.” Thyme shrugged awkwardly, seeming unsure of his answer. “I mean, it wouldn’t be a bad idea, would it?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Cranberry beamed. “We should do that!”

Grove frowned. “Well, not at all, but…that’s up to Rowan to decide. They’re her family, after all.”

The smile disappearing from her face, Cranberry nodded. “Y-Yeah, you have a point, Grove.” She glanced up at Rowan. “So…any thoughts?”

 _Me?_ She wasn’t entirely sure if it was the best idea to let _her_ decide their plans. The last time she came up with a plan it devolved into Grove and her almost getting sacrificed by the dragonmancers. _I don’t want to let anyone else get hurt because of me. What if Bluebell or Camellia got hurt because they came with us? I’ve already hurt Leaf and Wren because of my own actions…I don’t want to hurt my other siblings._

“Uh…well, a lot,” Rowan managed to muster. “I mean, do you all really think it’d be best for me to decide? I haven’t exactly made the smartest decisions lately.” _And by lately, I mean almost never._

“Rowan, that’s _your_ family. It’s your call,” Cranberry reminded her, or at least tried to.

Grove simply scoffed. “Yes, we do. Cranberry just said it, but your sisters are still your family. If you want to try, we can do it. We won’t do it if you don’t want us to.”

Rowan grimaced. “No, I do want to at least talk to them again, it’s just…what if everything goes wrong again?” She leaned into her own legs, resting her chin on her arms. “What if it only ends up getting them hurt? That would be on me. And I don’t think I could take it.”

She could feel a tear or two falling onto her arms - honestly, she didn’t have the energy to care at that point. Cranberry wiped away a few of the tears, though she still had an arm wrapped around Rowan.

“You wouldn’t be at fault for that, Rowan,” Grove murmured, rubbing his fingers against Rowan’s hand. “Not now, not ever.”

Thyme nodded in agreement. “You can’t just give up on yourself every time something goes wrong. Sometimes taking the risk is worth it.”

“Yeah!” Cranberry piped in. “And even if it was your fault, you aren’t the type of person to hurt them on purpose! Please don’t bring yourself down over it, Rowan.”

Letting out something of a wheezing laugh, Rowan sighed. “There isn’t much I can say to convince any of you otherwise, is there?” She looked back up, meeting their gazes. “But I guess you’re all right. It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

Cranberry smiled at her. “So we’re all in agreement? We’re going to visit Talisman?”

A hum of agreement seemed to drift around the group - Rowan returned Cranberry’s gesture, though she could still feel the rocks sitting in the pit of her stomach. _I’m still not sure if this is the smartest idea._


	3. Chapter 3

**VIOLET**

“Come _on_ , Violet! I swear this is a great idea!”

“The last great idea you had involved slathering yourself with _butter!_ ”

“ _I was eight_. And it was a wonderful idea, you’re just jealous of my intellect!”

“So sneaking into a Wingwatcher meeting is a wonderful idea now?”

“We _are_ Wingwatchers!”

“Wingwatcher _apprentices_.”

“Same thing! Besides, it’s not like they can kick us out! We’re far too invaluable for that. Seriously Violet, you’re worrying about this way too much. We’ll be fine.”

Sneaking into a Wingwatcher meeting was not Violet’s idea of fun. While she had to admit she was curious to learn what they were discussing, she wasn’t interested in going in the slightest. She’d much rather stay at home with a cup of warm milk and a book. Now _that_ was fun. Unfortunately, Daffodil never seemed to share those sentiments, that one in specific.

Violet raised an eyebrow at Daffodil. “Brook can still suspend our training.” _And besides…I don’t want to go anyways._

Daffodil scoffed. “We’re so close to being promoted to full Wingwatchers it won’t even matter!”

“Yeah…we’ll end up being promoted in the next three years at this rate.”

Rolling her eyes, Daffodil crossed her arms. “Violet, why are you being so uncooperative right now? _Especially_ for things like this! You’d normally be all about finding out what’s going on in the Wingwatcher meetings.”

 _Because I don’t want to think about any of this Wingwatcher stuff when Ivy isn’t around. Or because I’m still upset with Ivy just leaving us behind like that. You know, the obvious._ Violet wasn’t going to say it out loud, however - she had a feeling that Daffodil knew that all too well and she preferred not talking about it.

She sighed. “I just don’t think this is a good use of our time. Can’t we do something else?”

“This _is_ a productive way to spend our time!” Daffodil snapped. Exhaling deeply, she turned around, adding, “Look, you don’t have to come with. But I want to know what’s going on, so I’m going anyways - with or without you.”

As Daffodil began to walk away, Violet blinked in shock; she was being serious about this? _Usually she’d never go to do something on her own, especially without me…is Daff angry with me?_ Violet didn’t like the idea, but it seemed plausible - whenever Daffodil was furious with Violet, end result was usually being ignored for a few days or so. _What did I do this time, though? I mean, she doesn’t seem angry with me, but…_

 _I wish Ivy was here. She’d know how to handle situations like this._ Violet frowned, looking down at her shoes. _She’d be able to tell if Daffodil’s just angry with me or if she isn’t. She’s always been better at this stuff than I have._

_Why did she have to leave so suddenly?_

“Vi? Are you…” Daffodil had took one last glance at Violet, her gaze wide. She came over to Violet, her hand gently brushing against Violet’s cheeks. “I know you don’t want me to go by myself, but please don’t cry over it.”

 _Oh moons, am I crying? In front of Daff, of all people?_ Violet tried to ignore the rising feeling of embarrassment in her cheeks.

She shook her head. “No, that’s not…that’s not why. I’m just…thinking about something else.” She took Daffodil’s other hand, sighing. “But you’re dead set on going regardless, aren’t you?”

Grimacing, Daffodil gave in, nodding. “Yeah. I can tell you everything that they said afterwards, though! So you don’t have to come with if you really don’t want to.”

“You’ll probably end up getting caught and getting punished for sneaking into it,” Violet snorted. “And if there’s nothing I can say to convince you otherwise, then I’ll have to come with anyways. It’s just not right when we aren’t doing stupid shit together.”

Lightly nudging Violet’s shoulder, Daffodil smiled. “Aww, I love doing stupid shit with you too, Violet!” _I’m more surprised she paid attention to that than what I said earlier…but I agree._ “Now come on! I think there’s a tunnel that leads somewhere into the main cavern somewhere.”

**…**

Nearing a somewhat large entrance, Daffodil flashed a grin at Violet.

“I think this is one of the entrances.” Daffodil tilted her head at the door. “Not sure if it’s the main one, though. But we still should be able to get inside. Somehow…”

Violet narrowed her eyes. “Daff, if this is the main entrance, we’re practically done for. Please tell me you aren’t serious when you say you aren’t sure.”

An awkward laugh escaping her lips, Daffodil shrugged. “Don’t worry, maybe it isn’t the main entrance.”

“ _Maybe?!_ ” Violet snapped, immediately cupping her mouth in her hands once she realised she had risen her voice a bit too much for comfort. “Damn it, damn it-”

Daffodil grabbed Violet by the arm, and attempted to swerve towards the nearest corner as the footsteps from the room drew closer. _Damn it Daff, why did you let me come with?_ Before Daffodil could get to the corner, Foxglove had already stepped out of the room, a vaguely amused expression on her face.

She chuckled lightly. “Everyone could hear you both bickering from a mile away, you know.”

Violet’s cheeks flushed, while Daffodil stiffened beside her. _Are we in trouble?_ As Foxglove gestured for them to come closer, Daffodil reluctantly stepped away from the corner, Violet trailing from behind her.

Daffodil groaned. “Are we going to be punished for this?”

Foxglove shrugged. “Don’t know. Brook just gave up on trying to ignore your bickering and said to just bring you both in already.”

Frowning, Violet crossed her arms. “But we’re only Wingwatcher apprentices.”

“And that stopped you from trying to sneak into the meeting?” Foxglove teased, raising an eyebrow. Daffodil grumbled underneath her breath while Violet shifted closer to her. “Come on, you both might as well come inside. It’ll give you some experience for when you have to come to these meetings, anyways.”

Following Foxglove inside, Violet remained close to Daffodil as she tried to ignore the questioning gazes of the older Wingwatchers. _I mean, none of them look angry at us, so I guess that’s something,_ She thought to herself. _Still nerve racking._ They stood next to Foxglove, Squirrel also sitting nearby. Violet’s gaze scanning the cavern, it seemed like most Wingwatchers chose to stand throughout the meetings, though there were a few sitting down. _How could anyone stand around for that long?_

Sitting close by was Brook, who had a cup of hot tea in her hands, bags underneath her eyes. _She’s still commander? I thought she would’ve given that responsibility to someone else so she could focus on ruling Valor._ Violet wasn’t entirely surprised, either - she’d seen how enthusiastic Brook was about Wingwatching at the welcome ceremony. _Still, just what has she been doing that makes her that tired?_ Brook seemed to be more observant than Violet had hoped for, noticing Violet staring at her.

She sighed. “Kid, I’ve had a long day.” Taking another sip of her tea, she turned to the rest of the Wingwatchers. “I get that no one particularly wants to go to the old ruins while we still have the tunnel to fix. But some of our own are still there, and let’s not forget all of the other banished citizens of Valor.”

From his corner, Chipmunk muttered, “No one wants to do it because we’ll just get eaten anyways.”

Whipping her head around to face him, Foxglove scoffed. “I and several others have been to the old ruins before, and not once has anyone gotten eaten on the way there and back! You’re just a coward.”

Violet felt a smidge bad for Chipmunk upon seeing his flushed expression, but shrugged it off. _Foxglove does have a point. Even Daff and I have been to the old ruins before, Daff even more than I have. And we’re just apprentices!_

Foxglove glanced back at Brook. “I can lead a patrol there, if you’d like. No one else seems up to it, anyways.”

Brook sleepily nodded at her. “Thank you, Foxglove. Feel free to take whoever you’d like on the patrol, but I’ll be coming with.”

“Um, commander? With all due respect, wouldn’t it be more beneficial for you to stay in Valor?” Squirrel was now standing up, an eyebrow raised. “The tunnel still needs supervision while we’re shoring it up.”

“I’ll ask Lark if she can help out. She has more experience with that sort of stuff than I do,” Brook replied, gently stirring her tea. “But I’ll be going because I want to know if everyone in the ruins are alright for myself. Does anyone have any objections?”

A quiet hum of agreement seemed to stir around the other Wingwatchers - Brook appeared to take this as a sign to dismiss the meeting gesturing for them to leave. As most of the Wingwatchers began to leave, Brook turned to Violet and Daffodil, narrowing her eyes.

She pointed at them. “You two, stay.” _So are we actually in trouble, or…? Either way I’m not looking forwards to explaining this to my dads…_

Once the last Wingwatcher left, Brook craned her neck to see if the door had been closed, then took another sip of her tea. Daffodil was standing closer to Violet, her shoulders tensed up.

She grimaced. “So what’s our punishment?”

“Punishment? What are you on about?” Brook asked, a questioning look on her face. “I don’t punish apprentices for being curious. Besides, you both will end up participating in these soon enough.”

Violet almost let out a sigh of relief. _Thank the moons for that, at least._

Daffodil tilted her head. “I thought you were going to punish us because we aren’t allowed to be here.”

“Well, yes, you aren’t supposed to be here. But I’d rather you two be in here than have to talk over you both bickering right outside the main entrance.” Brook let out a sigh, shrugging her shoulders. “That aside, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m going to tell you both now that I don’t want either of you attempting to join the patrol to the ruins.”

Violet huffed. “We weren’t planning on it!”

Brook snorted. “Your record of following instructions says otherwise.” She stood up, finishing the last bit of tea. “Look, I get that you want to help out with some of the bigger issues - while you both definitely helped with the whole Dragonslayer situation in your own right, you have to understand that you both are just apprentices. You still have a few years of training before I can trust you both to do patrols out on the surface.”

“But we’ve _been_ to the old ruins before! I had to live there for a brief amount of time. We could be a great help on the patrol!” Daffodil argued. “You can absolutely trust us to do patrols!”

“Daffodil, no. You both aren’t going and that’s final,” Brook snapped, already leaving the cave. She sighed, taking one last glance at the two. “But for what it’s worth, you both are good Wingwatchers. Don’t take this personally.”

As she left, Violet glanced at Daffodil, who was staring glumly at her feet. Placing her hand on Daffodil’s shoulder, Violet gave her a small smile.

“Hey, don’t do that,” She murmured. “It’ll be alright.”

Daffodil groaned. “I know. But don’t you think it’s a bit silly that Brook won’t trust us out there? I mean, especially me!” She crossed her arms. “I just wish we could come along with.”

Violet’s smile turned into a smirk. “I may or may not have a solution to that.”


	4. Chapter 4

**WREN**

Wren glanced over Sky’s shoulder as they flew in the air - smaller mountains remained below them. _I’m so glad we don’t have to walk through that mountain range,_ She thought to herself. _That’d take way too long, honestly. And I don’t think Ivy or Leaf would enjoy that…_

She glanced over her shoulder, turning to Ivy and Leaf. “How are you both holding up so far?”

Leaf was just barely clinging onto Sky’s back, trembling a bit. Ivy, on the other hand, seemed perfectly content - hell, Wren could swear she seemed more excited if anything.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” He mumbled, clutching his stomach.

Ivy raised a brow at him, chuckling. “You alright, Leaf?”

He gave her a small smile. “Could be feeling better.” He attempted to subtly inch closer to Ivy, which Wren wanted to guess was out of wariness. “How are you enjoying this?”

Ivy shrugged, still laughing. “Don’t know, but it’s awesome! I don’t get how _you_ don’t like it.” She glanced back at Wren, tilting her head a bit. “So you and Sky get to do this every day?”

Wren grinned. “More or less.”

“Wow…” Ivy breathed, her eyes wide. “This is all so amazing.”

 _Someone’s lived her whole life under a rock,_ Wren commented to herself, quickly wanting to smack herself for thinking that. That wasn’t exactly wrong - all of Valor was located underground, wasn’t it? No wonder Ivy was so excited about everything. _Glad I didn’t let that one slip out…_

Leaf lightly nudged her shoulder. “You say that about everything these days.”

“I know, but it’s true! This even better than the first time I got to go outside!” She looked over Sky’s shoulder, her hair whipping her face. “I’m so glad I left Valor. Everything out here is beautiful.”

“Well, almost everything,” Leaf coughed to himself - Wren wanted to rebuke him for bringing Ivy’s mood down, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention to either of them anymore. So instead she settled for a simple glare.

She gently rubbed her hand against Sky’s neck, craning her neck a little to catch his eye. “Sky, how are you doing? Do you need to take a break?”

Sky smiled at her. “Well, I think I’m doing pretty alright, considering there’s three of you on my back right now. But could we take a small break?”

“We can do that.” Wren gave him a curt nod, then turning to Ivy and Leaf. “We’re going to land in a bit!”

Leaf let out a breath of relief. “Thank the moons.” Ivy rolled her eyes at him in response.

**…**

Once they found a relatively smaller clearing, Sky had landed, though making sure to be mindful of Leaf and Ivy. Wren hopped off once given the opportunity, Leaf doing the same, albeit struggling a bit to do so. He glanced back at Ivy, who was slowly getting down.

“Ivy, I can help you down if you want.”

She shook her head. “No thanks, I think I can get down by myself.” As she slid off of Sky’s back, she found herself accidentally tripping over her own foot - which ended up landing her on top of Wren, the both of them falling over in the process.

Wren let out a small yelp. “I-Ivy!”

Ivy drew back, her cheeks flushed. “Sorry Wren!” She got to her feet, brushing off her tunic. She gave Wren an awkward smile. “Didn’t mean to fall on you, I swear.”

Wren snorted in response, standing up as well. “It’s alright.” Ivy seemed to relax a little, joining in on Wren’s laughter. Leaf just rolled his eyes, and while it bugged Wren, she wasn’t going to bother with that.

 _I swear, sometimes he really needs to stop taking everything so seriously,_ She thought. _It’s not my fault if Ivy can be a little clumsy._

“So…Ivy, are you doing any better since this morning?” Wren asked, hoping to dissolve the tension.

Ivy shrugged, yawning. “A little. I wouldn’t mind a nap, though.”

Leaf frowned at her. “You should probably try going to sleep earlier, then. I know for a fact that there’s no one hunting us down during the dead of night.”

“I have tried that, and it never works _or_ helps!” Ivy argued, throwing her hands in the air. “I always end up waking up a few hours into sleeping, anyways. I don’t see how going to sleep earlier will help.”

Wren stared at them both, bewildered. “Wait, wait - what are you both even talking about?”

Ivy looked as if she was about to respond, but Leaf jumped in before she could say anything.

“Are you sure you want to share it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

She blinked at him, confused. “We’re also travelling with Wren and Sky. They should both know.” Leaf was disgruntled by her response, but said nothing else.

_Why is he acting so upset about that, anyways? It’s Ivy’s business, not his._

Ivy glanced back at Wren, sighing. “I…well, you see, since the whole situation with the Wingwatcher arrests happened and Leaf, Daffodil, Stone and I had to live in the ruins for a while, I developed a sort of sleeping problem, if that makes sense? It just got really hard to go to sleep while knowing there were people hunting you down and even if I did get to sleep, it was even harder to go back to sleep. I usually just slept closer to Daffodil when it happened, but…as you can see, she’s not with us.”

She turned to Leaf briefly. “Her dad was the one who drove you four out of the city and ordered the arrests, right?”

“Uh…yes. Why do you ask?”

Wren ignored his question and looked back at Ivy. “Your dad’s a piece of shit.”

Sky glared at her. “Wren, I’m pretty sure that shouldn’t be the first thing you say after someone admits they have sleeping issues!”

“I’m not wrong!” Wren shot back, crossing her arms. Ivy remained silent, avoiding everyone else’s gaze - Leaf appeared to pick up on this, glaring at Wren.

“Quit trying to upset her!” He snapped, earning a bewildered look from Ivy in the process.

“I’m not upset, Leaf. I’m just thinking.” She sighed to herself, shaking her head. “I know he’s terrible. But I can’t help but see him as my father still.”

“Some father he was,” Wren muttered. “If he lost his temper to the point where his own daughter has to run away from home to feel safe, then he doesn’t deserve to be called one.”

Ivy just grimaced, her gaze unblinking. “I-I guess you’re right.”

Leaf threw another glare at Wren before placing a hand on Ivy’s shoulder. “You okay?”

She brushed his hand aside, walking away from the group. “I want to be left alone for a bit.” She sat next to a nearby cluster of pebbles, ignoring Leaf’s attempts to get her to stay.

Sighing, Leaf folded his arms. “Wren, I agree with you but you came off way too strong for Ivy.”

“I can see that now, Leaf!” Wren shot back. _And now I feel a little bad for it…a little. She should realise that he never was an actual father to her, regardless of whether they’re related or not._

Leaf just scoffed at her, already beginning to walk towards Ivy. “I’ll go talk to her.” Wren immediately grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “Wren, what-”

“She _just_ said she wants to be left alone for a bit! Can’t you respect that?”

“Oh? And are _you_ going to talk to her about it, then?”

“That’s not even what I _said_ , you daft-”

“Both of you, stop fighting!” Sky intervened, pulling Wren away from Leaf before she could say more. He gave both of them a stern look. “If Ivy wants her own space for a bit, let’s give her that, okay? I’ll talk to her once she’s in the mood, because the both of you clearly can’t.” He remained silent for a moment, then added, “I’m going to stretch my wings for a bit.”

Before Wren could say anything more, Sky stalked off, though not too far away. Ivy was still sitting by herself, occasionally glancing back at the three, but refused to move from her spot. Wren could’ve sworn she saw a few tears welling up in her eyes, and if it was the case, it didn’t make Wren feel any better about the situation.

She glared at Leaf. “You’re being way too overbearing and clingy, you know that?”

“How is being concerned over her 'overbearing'?” He snapped back, keeping his voice low.

Wren shrugged, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know, how about the fact that you constantly try to comfort her and defend her when she clearly doesn’t want that kind of attention from you?” Avoiding meeting his gaze, she muttered, “She doesn’t seem the least bit interested, either.”

Leaf scoffed. “If she wasn’t interested, then she wouldn’t have let me kiss her.”

Wren simply stared at him for a moment before responding. “There’s so many things wrong with that statement that I’m not sure where I should even begin.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Look, I don’t want to get involved with…whatever this is but I’m just going to suggest that you and Ivy talk this through and leave it at that.”

He frowned, but didn’t argue. “I guess I could do that.” Leaf let out a sharp exhale, shoving his hands in his pockets. “So…how exactly do you manage to stay in the air that long without getting sick?”

Wren laughed. “You get used to it.”

“That’ll be the day,” He groaned, though he was vaguely amused. His gaze darted around the clearing for a bit, adding, “I wonder how much longer it’ll take to the ruins? It didn’t take us that long to go from Valor and back to Talisman.”

“I don’t know, maybe a few days at least? We should be fine,” Wren replied, sitting on the ground. “I just want to avoid any dragon cities and the Indestructible City for the time being. Sky got dragon-napped last time he went to a dragon city and I don’t like the Indestructible City much.” _And I’m still mad at Undauntable._

Leaf raised an eyebrow. “So the main reason we’re headed this route is because you don’t want to go near it?”

Wren smirked. “Maybe.”

As the two talked for a bit longer, Leaf stopped, looking from behind Wren. Wren turned to see Ivy walking over to them, still appearing somewhat downcast. She met both of their gazes.

“Hey,” She greeted them. “You guys did realise I wasn’t that far away from you, right?”

Wren didn’t particularly enjoy the implications Ivy’s statement had - neither did Leaf, apparently, as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. _At least I don’t have to get involved with that mess._ She glanced back at Ivy, grimacing.

“Um, Ivy? I’m…I’m sorry if I was a bit too harsh with you,” Wren sighed. “I just…have strong opinions against people like your father.” _People who don’t even care for their own children. Like my own._

Ivy shrugged, folding her arms. “I can tell you’re sorry, Wren. And I get where you’re coming from. But I’m still kind of angry with you.” She gave Leaf a side glance. “ _And_ you.”

Wren wanted to argue, but she didn’t want to upset Ivy even more. _And she has some right to be angry with me, I suppose._ Instead she gestured for Ivy to sit down, which she did so with mild confusion.

“Where’s Sky?” She asked, tilting her head.

“He’s stretching his wings for a bit. It doesn’t take him all that long,” Wren replied. She whirled around only to spot Sky rushing over to them, an expression of worry on his face. She immediately stood up, both concerned and worried. _What happened? Did he get attacked by someone? If he did, I’m going to find whoever did and-_ “Sky, what happened?”

He took in a deep breath. “I think the soldiers from the Indestructible City are following us, Wren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i do not particularly want to leave an author's note, but i want to address this really quick because I feel like people are going to be upset with the way i'm handling Leaf and Ivy's relationship so far after this specific chapter (or i'm just being paranoid, but either way i want to address it in case people are questioning why i'm writing it this way)
> 
> this is my interpretation of their relationship based on the canon material, because the only things we really get are Leaf being clingy towards Ivy (i mean yes he's this towards Wren and somewhat Rowan as well but not my point) and the forced kiss and while i hate this ship with a passion, they needed more interactions than that and i'm giving them interactions here that fit with the canonical dynamic given. am i biased against this ship? yes. but that's an outside factor here and i'm going solely by canon material for how i write this relationship, which again isn't much to work with
> 
> i mainly want to bring this up now so i don't have to explain my reason for this multiple times in regards to comments asking about it. i already mentioned that i hate Leaf x Ivy with a passion in chapter one's notes so i feel this should be clear but. not everyone reads author's notes smh, and i'm just,,, _very_ paranoid about writing this relationship hhh
> 
> anyways, styx out


	5. Chapter 5

**ROWAN**

_This is such a stupid idea. Why did I agree to this, again?_

She was walking in between Grove and Cranberry, with Thyme taking the lead. Rowan wasn’t exactly thrilled that they were headed back, to say the least - but having Grove and Cranberry with her did help her be somewhat at ease. _They don’t have to be by my side all the time, though._

Rowan didn’t particularly _want_ to dwell on that, though. At least, not at the moment. She was more concerned with how her sisters would react to her since they removed the dragonmancers from power. Were they disgusted with her for hiding the truth from them for so long? Or did they more upset with the fact that she’d left without even talking to them?

_They’ll probably hate me for it like Leaf. I wouldn’t blame them, either._

Cranberry’s palm brushed against Rowan’s hand. She gave Rowan a reassuring smile - Rowan smiled back, blushing and slightly dumbfounded. _She’s always so sweet to me. Why is she so nice to me? I’m not sure what I’ve even done to deserve it…_ Grove’s chuckling pulled her out of her thoughts.

“You both are adorable,” He commented. Cranberry simply giggled, while Rowan simply blushed harder, unable to resist letting out a few laughs.

Thyme grinned at them, though he didn’t comment on it. “We should be close to one of the underground shelters.” His gaze rested on Rowan. “You don’t have to go in the village with us, you know. You could wait in one of the shelters till we come back.”

Rowan shook her head. “No, it’s…it’s fine. I should come with, anyways. I need to speak with my sisters whether I want to or not.” _And I need to know if they hate me for hiding the truth about Wren too._

Grove frowned, resting his arm on Rowan’s shoulder. “I can do most of the talking, if that helps.”

Something resembling a smile tugged at her lips. “Thanks.”

They didn’t talk much for the rest of the walk to Talisman. Cranberry had been trying to soothe Rowan’s nerves for most of the walk, but Rowan didn’t feel that it was helping much if at all. She was grateful for it, though. Upon reaching the village itself however, Rowan didn’t feel as sick to her stomach as she had felt when the idea was initially presented to her - it was still there, of course, but the gut feeling felt slightly better.

Rowan could see some villagers walking about, though not without warily glancing up at the sky for dragons - the warning bell was also still standing, along with the dragonmancers’ old study. _Did anything even change since we left? I wouldn’t put it past them, honestly…_ She wanted to try and be positive that these people could change their ways, but she felt that even a little faith in them was too much.

“Rowan, where would your sisters be at this time?” Grove asked, turning to her.

She shrugged. “I don’t know…it’s not like I paid much attention to them. I remember Bluebell enjoying wandering around the village a lot, though. She might be out.”

Thyme nodded. “Yeah, I think I remember her doing that…a lot. Wasn’t she the one you said thought that she could speak to butterflies?”

“Yep.”

Cranberry blinked at Rowan. “Wait, you weren’t joking about that?”

Inhaling sharply, Rowan shook her head. “No.” She shrugged. “But that was when Bluebell was nine, so hell knows if she still thinks that. She still wanders around the village randomly, though.”

“Well, we can ask around for her,” Grove suggested.

Rowan grimaced. “What if we can’t find her? Does that mean we can leave, or…?”

He rolled his eyes. “Well, you know where Camellia lives, don’t know? She’s long moved out of your parents house by now.”

Almost immediately Rowan wanted out at the suggestion of going to Camellia. _I really don’t want to talk to her again, no thank you, Grove._ While Rowan didn’t _hate_ or _dislike_ her sister per say, Rowan didn’t particularly favour Camellia over the others. Camellia had always been more rude and snappy with everyone when any adults weren’t around and had always been snobbish, at least in Rowan’s opinion - Rowan could live with it, but she’d much rather speak with someone else in Talisman.

Cranberry held back a few chuckles upon seeing Rowan’s expression. “I assume she’s not your first pick.”

“Well, I would hope not!” Rowan snapped, huffing. “She annoys me.”

Grove let out a snort of laughter. “Well, for your sake, let’s hope we can find Bluebell.”

…

It had only been a bit of poking around Talisman, but Rowan was already feeling sick just hanging around the outskirts of the village. She had asked if she could wait until the others were done - Cranberry had wanted to come with, but Rowan didn’t particularly want to be around anyone else at the moment. She was walking in the section of the forest where she and Leaf used to spar together…how long ago had it been?

 _Years from now, I think,_ She answered, ignoring a pang of sadness in her chest. _I miss those days. Back when he didn’t hate me, I mean._

Did Leaf still hate her for that? She doubted it, but…it wouldn’t surprise her if he still disliked her for lying. _Which I can’t blame him for. I…I have been an awful older sister to all my siblings. Especially to him and Wren._ Rowan had been trying to avoid those types of thoughts since she already knew how those conversations in her head would go by now, but when she had no one else to talk to, it was exceptionally hard to avoid it.

 _Cranberry would probably try to reassure me that he doesn’t hate me,_ She mused. _And honestly? She’s probably right. I’m probably just overthinking, but…_

“Ugh, this is all a load of crap. None of this would be happening if it weren’t for mom and dad and the _dragonmancers-_ ” Rowan plopped down next to a nearby tree trunk, sighing. She curled up into her arms and legs, lowering her head. “If it weren’t for me…”

_If it weren’t for me, then maybe everything would be better._

Rowan ignored the tears falling onto her cheeks, though she couldn’t help but let out a few sniffles. She _loathed_ the fact that she was now crying over it ( _again_ ), but it did feel a little better to release her tears, for the time being. As she remained sitting down, she felt a hand touch her shoulders, catching her attention. She looked up, expecting to see Cranberry or Grove or Thyme - to her surprise, she locked gazes with Bluebell, who seemed just as shocked to see Rowan.

Bluebell tilted her head questioningly at her. “Rowan? It’s really you? You’re…back?”

Rowan wasn’t entirely sure what to say - she didn’t think any of her sisters would find her while she was out in the woods, but now that one of them had?

“I…sort of?” Rowan avoided meeting Bluebell’s gaze. “What are you doing out here, anyways?”

Bluebell sat down next to Rowan, frowning. “I could ask the same of you. But to answer your question, I was taking a walk. I wanted to find some butterflies, but…this is just as good!”

Rowan shrugged. “I…really did not want to come back, Bluebell. And I don’t intend on staying.”

“Why are you here, then? And are Wren and Leaf with you? I never got to say goodbye to them…”

_What am I supposed to say to that? Neither of them are with us, and I hate seeing Bluebell upset. But if she finds out I lied to her…I couldn’t. Not again._

“Well…no. They aren’t with me,” Rowan confessed, exhaling deeply. “They took off on their own. It’s just Grove, Cranberry, Thyme, and I.”

Bluebell glanced down at her feet, her shoulders slumped. “Oh.”

Rowan grimaced. _Yeah…this is the exact kind of conversation I wanted to avoid. And yet…_ Gently nudging Bluebell with her arm, she wasn’t entirely sure how this attempt at comfort would go.

“Hey, don’t…don’t cry. I’m sure you’ll see them again one day.” Rowan was almost certain that was the _wrong_ thing to say, but then again, her other option was to bail. “You still have Camellia and Mallow to take care of you, don’t you?”

Bluebell shrugged. “Camellia hasn’t talked to Mallow or I since you guys left. And Mallow and I don’t really…talk to each other that much anymore, either.” She sighed. “I know we’ve never been exactly close, but…everything that happened that day was really upsetting, Rowan. Camellia said she needed time to think, which obviously she’s just brooding, and Mallow-”

Rowan rested her hand on Bluebell’s shoulder. “Listen, Bluebell? I’m really sorry about not telling any of you the truth sooner. I didn’t mean for things to come out that way, I swear.”

“Hmm, I believe you, but Camellia might not forgive you for it.” Bluebell gave Rowan a weak smile. “But you didn’t answer my other question.”

Laughing awkwardly, Rowan smiled back. “Oh, that. Well, uh…my friends and I might be trying to see if anyone would like to help us build our village? By ‘anyone’ I mean you, Mallow and Camellia…”

Bluebell’s gaze widened. “Wait, really? You want us to help you? _And_ you’re building a village?”

Rowan nodded. “Yeah…? If you wanted to come with. You don’t have to.”

Bluebell grinned. “That sounds _awesome_. I’m coming with you guys.” She stood up, stretching. “I really don’t want to keep living with mom and dad, anyways…”

“Did they do anything to you? Or Mallow and Camellia, for that matter,” Rowan asked, her voice laced with concern. _It wouldn’t shock me if they did. They never looked at us the same way again after Wren._

She grimaced. “I…they were really mad.” Bluebell clearly looked too uncomfortable to speak about it, but Rowan could form an educated guess judging from her expression. _That’s disgusting._ “But it won’t happen anymore since we’re leaving! …Right?”

Rowan stood up, awkwardly embracing Bluebell in a hug. Or at least, tried to. “Bluebell, I’d never hurt you like them. You know that.” To Rowan’s shock, Bluebell hugged back - she couldn’t help but smile.

“I know, Rowan,” Bluebell drawled, giggling. She held on for a bit longer, then drew back. “You’re a surprisingly good hugger, for someone who hates touch. Anyone ever tell you that?”

Snorting, Rowan nodded lightly. “A few times, yeah.” She glanced around their surroundings, then sighed. “We should probably find my friends. They’re probably worried about me by now…”

Bluebell shrugged. “Well, I would hope so! Maybe they’ve already talked to Camellia and Mallow about it?”

 _Maybe._ Rowan didn’t particularly want to comment on that, mainly out of hope that they had already finished talking with Camellia so Rowan didn’t have to. _I know Camellia isn’t going to be happy with me for this. I mean, she’s never happy with me for anything, but…_

“I suppose so,” Rowan mumbled. “But do you really think Camellia will be able to tolerate me regardless? Most of our conversations end with yelling and insults.” _Which…I wish I felt worse about. But I really don’t feel bad about yelling at Camellia._

Bluebell gently patted Rowan’s back. “Aw, Rowan. Camellia will come around at some point! But if not, then I’m still with you.”

Rowan said nothing in response, only giving Bluebell an awkward smile. She still wasn’t sure about this whole idea. She still wasn’t sure if coming back to Talisman was a good idea. _But I do know at least one of my sisters doesn’t hate me for everything…even if I deserve it._ Rowan doubted that alone made the trip worth it, but…it made a little part of her feel just the tiniest bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay for reference in this story Mallow is going to be the name of Wren's sister because she got no name in L2. And for further reference Camellia is 21 (she's canonically the second oldest, so why not make her one year younger than Rowan lmao), Mallow is 18, and Bluebell is 16. This is simply so y'all aren't confused
> 
> Also I apologise for this chapter taking so long, I just was burnt out on finishing this one since I've been working on it for almost three weeks now. It was going to be longer but I decided to cut out the other parts and save it for later because 1) I don't want to rush the plot for Rowan here and 2) It would not be quality writing since at that point I'd be forcing myself to write smth I really do not want to atm. Also I've been having irl issues so. do not expect chapters to come out as quickly
> 
> \- Styx/Anth


	6. Chapter 6

**BROOK**

Brook scowled at the papers scattered across her desk. She was sitting in her office, still reading through the paperwork she had been neglecting to work on for days now. Most of the overdue papers were related to her duties as the commander of the Wingwatchers, but the other half was related to her new duties as lord of Valor. Which was something she didn’t _entirely_ mind, but she hated how it got in the way of her other job that she enjoyed more.

 _Well, maybe neglecting isn’t the right word,_ She thought, tightening her grip on her pencil. _Because last I checked, I didn’t get a choice in being arrested for the stupidest reason._

Brook had just started on working on ideas to solve some of the issues brought up in their last Wingwatcher meeting - and then Heath called a mandatory meeting and arrested her shortly afterwards. She vividly remembered kicking and pulling the hair of several of Heath’s men that day. _I still can’t believe he had the gall to do that publicly. I knew he disliked me, but…_

But she knew there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. It was all settled with, and Heath finally lost his power - she didn’t particularly _want_ to dwell on it, but her mind constantly drifted back to her frustration and rage that the whole issue happened in the first place.

“All these tunnel problems wouldn’t even be _things_ if he was never lord in the first place!” She groaned, digging her face into her palms. “By all moons, did he have to be _that_ inefficient at problem solving?”

To Brook, it felt like most of her recent work as Valor’s new lord was cleaning up Heath’s mess. And she loathed _every second of it_ . It was always a reminder that she shouldn’t even be in the position she was currently in, and a position she didn’t particularly _want_ , either. Not that she minded it much, but she was perfectly content with remaining commander of the Wingwatchers. Being the lord of Valor complicated that.

Brook glanced back down at the papers, sighing as she picked her quill back up. _Brook, you can rant about Heath’s awful decisions later. You need to finish this now so Lark won’t bother you about it AGAIN._

Lark had been helping Brook out with most of her tasks, which Brook did appreciate, but she still found it annoying when Lark had to remind her to finish certain things. Which was often. Brook had to wonder how much free time Lark had on her hands to do this consistently, but then again, Lark always happened to have spare time whenever it was work related.

Skimming through the paper for the fifth time, Brook let out another frustrated groan and chucked her quill at the wall. She also wanted to throw the papers, but Lark had organised them for her yesterday and Brook wasn’t going to risk getting a paper cut. Instead she settled for slamming her arms against her desk, resting her head on top of them.

_Ughhhh. Paperwork and cleaning this up isn’t a good combination for my health._

“Uhh, mom? You okay?”

Brook lifted her head; Forest was standing right outside the entrance, a questioning look on his face. He took a brief glance at the pencil now laying on the ground before quickly looking away.

She slumped in her chair. “I despise this paperwork. I just want to go on an outside patrol or work on the tunnels instead!”

“Now you know how I feel about skygazing notes,” He muttered, his gaze narrow.

Brook scoffed. “Skygazing notes aren’t this bad, what are you even _talking_ about? And they don’t even have to be that long or complex!” _Well, unless you’re a Wingwatcher apprentice whose name is Ivy…and have some sort of obsession with describing everything in detail. Especially the dragons._

Forest rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue. “Anyways, did you have any meetings planned today?”

Raising an eyebrow, she leaned into her chair. “No. Or at least, I don’t think so. Why’d you ask?”

“You don’t? Hmm.” He frowned, glancing behind his shoulder. “That’s confusing because Lark is at the door. Maybe you forgot?”

Brook quickly shot out of her seat. “Lark’s _here_ ? _Now_ ? Okay, now I definitely know that I had nothing else planned - it’s my paperwork day.” _Just what is she doing here, anyways? It’s not like she has to see me right now…and to be perfectly honest, I don’t want her to see me complaining about paperwork._

_…or her husband._

Brook wasn’t over the fact that Lark was with Heath _still_ , despite everything. But she knew it was a sensitive topic for Lark, so Brook usually tried to avoid mentioning Heath specifically whenever their discussions got dangerously close to that. _And I’m not sure if I’d be able to restrain myself from saying all sorts of things while in that kind of mood._

Forest nodded. “Did you, uh…want me to tell her you’re busy? I can do that if you want.”

“No, it’s alright. Bring her in, I need a breather from all of _this_ anyways,” Brook replied, exhaling deeply. As he left the room, Brook rubbed her eyes. _And it’ll give me something of an excuse to avoid doing some paperwork. Maybe._

Brook got to her feet and walked over to where she threw her quill - she had to wonder why Lark was even coming over in the first place. _I don’t think we have any meetings scheduled until tomorrow,_ She mused. _So why now? She hardly comes here if she doesn’t have to._

Before Brook could get back to her desk, Lark walked in, vaguely amused. She raised an eyebrow.

“Oh dear. What did your quill do to you this time, Brook?”

Brook knew what Lark was implying. Whenever Lark had caught Brook in one of her moments of frustration, Lark had began to find it funny to gently tease Brook about it. Namely, about her constantly throwing her quill across the room. Brook simply huffed and sat back down in her seat. _I mean, she_ is _trying to be friendly outside of meetings._

“I have overdue paperwork to finish,” Brook groaned. “And I don’t want to finish it. This quill is a reminder of that.”

“Oh! I didn’t know you were busy. I can leave, if you’d like.”

“No, please stay,” Brook sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Some company would be nice, all things considered.”

“Really? Thank you!” Lark dragged a chair to the front of Brook’s desk, sitting in it. “I hope I’m not too much of a bother.”

Brook chuckled. “Nah, you’re alright.” As she resumed to her paperwork, Brook hummed quietly to herself. “So…what brings you here?”

Lark grimaced. “Well, um…it’s kind of weird, I think. If it’s weird that I just wanted to talk with you for a bit. I mean, I find it a little weird, at least. And pretty awkward, to be honest with you.”

“Like…outside of our meetings?” Brook asked - Lark nodded in response. “That’s not weird at all! In fact, I would love to speak to you more outside of those.” _And I wish you kept speaking to me after I became the Wingwatcher commander. So you’re right in that it’s really awkward._

An awkward smile was plastered onto Lark’s face. “It’s not? Well, that’s a relief. I’ve been wanting to speak to you more lately, anyways.”

Brook shrugged. “Glad I can be of some help.” Now lightly gnawing on the tip of the quill, she frowned. “Is there any specific reason you wanted to talk?” _Is everything alright at your home?_

Lark looked away. “I…I just want to talk to someone who I know won’t yell at me for things that aren’t my fault for once.”

“Was Heath yelling at you _again_?” Brook asked, though she felt it came out more like a growl.

“I-I…I don’t really want to talk about it,” Lark confessed, folding her arms into her sleeves. “But to answer your question, yes.”

 _He really doesn’t want to change, does he?_ Brook would expect that he would have learned something from the ordeal with the stolen treasure, and try to hold back on his temper. Then again, Brook knew that Heath had always been a short fuse since their teenage years and was adamant about not working on it, so it didn’t surprise her in the least that he was still unpleasant to be around, from her experience.

Sighing, Brook briefly glanced back at her. “Well, you can come vent to me about it whenever you need to. Or want to. Whatever works, I suppose.”

Lark’s cheeks were flushed. “Y-You really don't have to do that, Brook,” She stammered. “I’m doing fine. Your problems are a bigger deal than mine, anyways.”

“Bah! Not to me. Your problems are just as big of a deal as mine, Lark,” She replied.

Lark opened her mouth to argue, but was quickly cut off by a knock on the door. Brook turned her attention to the door - what was it _now_?

“Who is it?”

“It’s Foxglove, commander!”

Brook inhaled sharply, already guessing who it was likely about. “Come in.”

Foxglove opened the door to reveal two young Wingwatcher apprentices - apprentices who Brook immediately recognised to be Daffodil and Violet. Foxglove had an expression of pure exasperation on her face, glaring at nothing. Daffodil had her arms crossed, pouting - Violet simply looked irked, refusing to meet anyone else’s gaze. _What did they do now?_

“These two decided to try and sneak off so they could join one of the surface patrols. You can imagine the struggle it was to get them back in Valor in one piece.”

Daffodil huffed. “It’s not _our_ fault that we mistook which patrol it was!” Violet immediately buried her face with her palms, groaning.

Brook let out a long sigh, lightly shaking her head. “Foxglove? Make sure you assign someone to watch these two when we head to the ruins.”

She began gesturing for the two to the head out of the office, still vaguely annoyed. “Alright, you two can leave.” The apprentices quickly left, immediately bickering with each other on their way out. Foxglove exhaled deeply once they were out of earshot. “Are you going to punish them?”

“Foxglove, those two are a rare breed of Wingwatcher apprentice. In that punishment does not deter them, it only makes them disregard rules even more.” Brook grimaced. “And you know how I feel about punishing apprentices.”

Foxglove gave a disgruntled shrug, but didn’t argue. “So who should watch them, then?”

 _Well, I can say with certainty that it won’t be you or me,_ Brook wanted to say, but the look on Foxglove’s face told her that stating the obvious was not going to put her in a better mood. “Tell me, who do you plan taking with us for the patrol?”

“I was thinking of taking Wintersweet, Yarrow, and Squirrel,” Foxglove answered. “Wintersweet and Yarrow work well together and Squirrel because I’m pretty sure Pine’s still at the ruins. It’ll probably cheer Squirrel up a bit, too.”

“Surprisingly thoughtful of you.” Brook raised an eyebrow at her. “I genuinely thought you were going to drag Chipmunk along just to spite him, though. Seems right up your alley.”

Foxglove shook her head and laughed. “No, we both know how he is on daylight patrols - he’s generally better at the night missions, anyways. I’m perfectly fine with letting him spend time with his girlfriend for the day, no matter how fun picking on him sounds.”

Brook snorted. “Try not to take _too_ much pleasure in teasing Chipmunk when you do it again.”

“I’ll try,” Foxglove joked, rolling her eyes.

Tipping her head to the side, Brook shrugged. “Back to the matter at hand…if that’s the case, then I can assign Holly or Parsley to watch them, if that’s alright with you.” _I mean, it’s alright with me. I’d hope both of them have the common sense to know how to at least keep an eye on two fourteen-year-olds, no matter how difficult they might be._

Foxglove frowned. “But Holly? _Really_?”

“Do you have that little faith in your sister, Foxglove?” Brook teased, earning another eye roll from Foxglove. “I’m sure even Holly can handle that kind of responsibility. She knows how to handle the younger apprentices fairly well, and you have to admit she does have more experience than you. But because I know you’ll complain, I’ll assign Holly _and_ Parsley to watch them. Deal?”

Somewhat amused, Foxglove nodded. “Deal. Thanks, commander.” As she left, Lark let out a few quiet laughs.

She raised an eyebrow at Brook. “You really are close to all the other Wingwatchers, aren’t you?”

“Well, not all of them, but…yeah. They’re like a second family to me. I wouldn’t trade the world for a better team to work with,” Brook confessed.

Lark smiled. “That’s sweet.” Brook felt her cheeks heating up in response - the best she could do was muster up an awkward smile in return. “Brook? If you want to focus more on your Wingwatcher tasks, I’d be glad to help out with your lord duties, if you’d like. I know you love being the Wingwatcher commander more than being the lord of Valor.”

“Really? That’s great! Cause, uh…I have a favour to ask of you.”

“Brook, I’m not going to do your paperwork for you,” Lark replied with a teasing smirk.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Brook laughed. “But in all seriousness, I was hoping that you could take the lead of the reconsealing of the tunnel nearby the old village for the next few days? I have to head to there for a bit and I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. A few days at most, I’m hoping.”

Lark blinked in surprise. “Uh…you want _me_ to take over something like that? Are you sure?”

Grinning at her, Brook reached across her desk, placing her hand on top of Lark’s. “Hey, don’t doubt yourself. You have some of the most brilliant ideas to improve Valor and are great at leading these sorts of things. You’ll be just fine.”

“R-Really? Well, if you say so…I guess I can try,” Lark giggled, her cheeks flushed. Brook’s smile spread wider, laughing in response. _I think I might enjoy spending time with Lark more than I thought I would._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> smh yes another note
> 
> Holly, Wintersweet, Yarrow, and Parsley are all OCs I made specifically for this story because I took one look at the list of named Wingwatchers on the wiki and I knew that was not going to suffice. there might be more ocs coming up depending on what fits and what doesn't-


	7. Chapter 7

**WREN**

“You’re sure?” Wren asked, glancing behind her shoulders. They were simply walking through the mountain range, as Wren didn’t want to push Sky further.

Sky nodded. “They looked exactly how you described them a while back. The porcupine armour and all.”

Ivy, who was lightly dozing off on Sky’s back, grimaced. “That sounds…very worrying. What does the Indestructible City want with  _ us _ , anyways?”

Wren sighed. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I refuse to cooperate. Doubt it’s anything good, mind you.”

“On the bright side, we travel mainly by flight. So it’d probably take them a while before they catch up,” Leaf chimed in. He was walking alongside Wren, his body somewhat tense. “I’m trying to be optimistic about this, though.”

“I guess, but…I don’t like it.” Ivy closed her eyes as she laid back down. “It reminds me too much of the Wingwatcher arrests.”

_ Well, I hope you get sleep this time around, _ Wren wanted to say, but she wasn’t entirely sure if it was the best to bring that back up again. She didn’t particularly want to ruminate on it longer than she had to, and she was pretty sure Ivy was still upset with her for earlier. Instead she let out another sigh, not commenting on it.

Sky frowned. “You aren’t wrong, but I don’t fly all day. My wings would be pretty sore by afternoon if I did that, I think.”

Leaf shrugged. “I’m just saying that I think it’ll take the soldiers awhile to catch up since…you know. You can fly and they can’t.”

“I suppose so,” Sky replied. Wren gently patted his shoulder, or at least, reached for it.

“Don’t worry Sky, you can fly as long as you feel comfortable doing it. I don’t want you to feel forced to do it.” Sky smiled back at her in response. She turned to Leaf, smirking at him. “And we’ll try to keep you in mind while flying, Leaf.”

Leaf didn’t say anything, but he rolled his eyes at her in amusement. Wren laughed to herself.  _ I missed teasing Leaf like this. _

“Wren?” Ivy’s voice took Wren by surprise. She looked at Ivy, raising an eyebrow. “Do you think we’ll make any stops on the way to the old village?”

Wren shrugged. “Well, there is that huge river past the mountains that I’ve wanted to check out for a while now. I vaguely remember seeing some mountain dragons and desert dragons in that area, but that was a while ago.”

Ivy immediately perked up. “There might be dragons living over there? Can we go see?  _ Please _ ?”

Leaf’s expression was something of a frown. “Ivy, are you  _ sure _ that’s a safe idea?”

“I’m sure it’s perfectly safe as long as it’s not just me going to check!” Ivy argued, pouting. Begrudgingly, she added, “But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll keep my distance.”

“So you promise to avoid riding the first dragon you see?” Leaf prompted, raising an eyebrow. Ivy snorted, nodding as she laughed.

Wren joined in her laughter. “Sure, we can go see when we get there.”

Ivy giggled, her smile bright. “Thanks, Wren.”

…

They had been nearing the river by now, and Ivy had gotten off of Sky’s back solely due to her practically vibrating with excitement. She was walking by Wren’s side, talking Wren’s ears off about her speculations and dragons. Wren honestly didn’t mind it, and had even added her own thoughts when Ivy took a breath in between her rambling - it helped pass the time, and it was refreshing to talk with someone who also loved dragons.

Once Ivy paused for a moment, Leaf jumped in. “Ivy, I don’t think we’ve even reached the river yet.”

Ivy rolled her eyes, though she was still beaming. “Close enough!”

He didn’t respond, instead turning to Wren. “I could’ve sworn she was just about to fall asleep minutes ago.” Wren couldn’t help but let out an amused chortle.

Ivy huffed upon overhearing. “You both should know this about me, though!”

“She does have a point, though,” Wren said after recovering from her fit of laughter. “Dragons are exciting to be around. It’s only reasonable that someone would perk up at the mention of one.”

“If fate exists, it must really enjoy seeing me travel with people who share the most dangerous of interests,” Leaf joked. Ivy didn’t seem to be paying attention to him, or at least didn’t find it that funny - Wren was entertained.

Wren shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s always dangerous, though…I mean, not all dragons are dangerous, right?”

Sky glanced at her. “Wren, I know what you’re implying and I don’t think I like it.”

Gently patting his talon, Wren held back some laughter. “We all know this about you, though.”

“Aw, Wren. Give him some credit,” Leaf replied, smirking. “An army of snails could be terrifying in its own right.”

“Ooh, add some kittens and turtles to the mix and you’ll smother your enemies with cuteness!” Ivy cried.

Sky scoffed, but was laughing with them. “I’m being patronised,” He joked, rolling his eyes.

Wren lightly patted his talons. “In all seriousness, you’re still the loveliest and most adorable dragon that any of us could’ve met, and we wouldn’t change a thing about you.”

He smiled back. “Aw, and you’re the loveliest pet a dragon could have.”

Amused, she barked back, “I am  _ not _ a pet-”

“Oh, look!” Ivy interrupted. “The river’s really close!” She turned to Wren. “Could we go see now?”

Sighing, Wren nodded. “I suppose we could check it out now. But I’d rather scout ahead first, just in case. Ivy, you can come with me because somehow, I doubt Leaf and Sky are physically capable of keeping you from charging over to the river.”

Ivy let out a snort of laughter. “True.”

Leaf frowned. “What about us?”

“Leaf, we’re just scouting ahead in case there’s something that we want to avoid so we can leave immediately. I think you and Sky can handle a couple of minutes without me,” Wren answered.  _ Or at least, I hope so. _

He glanced briefly at Ivy and grimaced, but didn’t argue. “Alright, but if anything happens to either of you-”

Ivy took Leaf’s hands in her own. “Leaf, I promise that you don’t need to worry about us. Besides, Wren’s coming with me. She knows what she’s doing!” Wren let out an awkward laugh in reply as Leaf’s gaze trailed over to her.  _ I can’t tell if she actually thinks that or if she’s just trying to be extremely optimistic for his sake. _

“Well, I would hope she does,” He sighed, breaking away from Ivy. “Just be careful?”

“By the moons, stop Leaf!” Wren chuckled. “Ivy will be perfectly safe with me, and I will make sure she doesn’t run up to any dragons we might see.” She lightly patted his shoulder. “But if it makes you feel any better, we’ll be as careful as possible.”

Leaf didn’t seem entirely convinced, but he accepted the answer - or at least, that’s what Wren assumed the small smile on his face meant.

Sky turned to him, grinning. “Ooh, we could go looking for snails while waiting for them!” Leaf seemed impartial to the idea, simply shrugging.

Wren chuckled lightly. “You guys have fun, then. We shouldn’t be gone too long, anyways.”

“Wait, we’re going now? Great!” Ivy gave Leaf and Sky a small wave before walking in the direction of the river.

_ That didn’t mean “we’re going now”- _ Wren didn’t say it out loud, though - Ivy was already a little farther along and frankly, she doubted correcting Ivy would matter at this point. Quickly catching up to Ivy, she resisted the urge to shoot Ivy an irritated glare.  _ As long as I’m able to keep an eye on her, it should be fine. _

Ivy noticed Wren walking beside her. “Wren, isn’t this exciting- oh.” Her expression faltered upon seeing Wren’s face. “Sorry about rushing off like that.”

“It’s fine,” Wren sighed, shaking her head. “Let’s just keep going until we find a decent spot to look and see from a distance.”

“What if we climbed a tree? We’d be able to see more from a better perspective,” Ivy suggested, tilting her head.

Wren raised an eyebrow at her. “That…could work, actually. And it might save us some time.”

She looked around, spotting a small cluster of trees to their right. There wasn’t all that many, but it appeared to be where part of the river led into - to their left the river continued to stretch out.  _ Well, we are still sort of close to the mountain range, so seeing some forest area shouldn’t be all that surprising. _

Ivy also seemed to pick up on it. “You wanna try climbing one of those? Or should I do it?” Wren could tell she was attempting to be teasing - if it weren’t for the tone of her voice, then it was definitely the smirk on her face.  _ Well…she is trying, so I guess I can’t fault her for that. _

“If you want to,” Wren replied, smiling back at her. “As long as you’re careful about it, that is.”

“Hmm, alright! I’ll go ahead.” Before Wren could say anything, Ivy shot off once again.  _ Is she always like this? _ She didn’t bother calling after Ivy, however - she didn’t want to draw too much attention to either of them, plus, she found Ivy’s excitement sort of endearing.

_ Well, in a “you’re really pushing it but it’s somehow still cute” kind of endearing, if anything. _

Once Wren reached Ivy, she was surprised to find Ivy already beginning to climb one of the trees. Ivy glanced down at Wren, laughing awkwardly, an apologetic smile on her face. Wren sighed once more, climbing up to her branch.

She awkwardly shifted closer to Ivy. “See anything?”

Ivy shook her head. "Nope. I think I'll climb a little higher and see if the view gets any better."

Wren raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but don't fall. Something tells me that it'd be unpleasant for us both."  _ And Leaf would lose it if he found out- _

Ivy only laughed in response, hauling herself up to another branch. She remained on her own branch, lightly scratching her arms as the pine needles brushed against her skin. Wren wasn't sure how much energy Ivy had gained just from being told that there could  _ possibly _ be dragons in the area, but it was already beginning to tire her out.  _ Or maybe it's because there's no way to get her to contain her excitement. At least, there's no way that I'm aware of… _

_ If it does turn out that there's some dragons over there, Ivy and I are going to have a little chat about safety. And caution. And not running off every five seconds even though I said DON'T. _

Getting lost in her own thoughts turned out to be a bad idea, since Ivy's excited squeal almost caused Wren to lose her grip on her branch. Before Wren could reprimand her, Ivy had already began climbing back down, which Wren thought was the most careful Ivy had been the entire day. Soon Ivy reached the branch with relative ease. Ivy took Wren’s hands in her own, her whole body radiating excitement.

“Wren, guess what I saw?” Ivy didn’t even wait for Wren’s answer. “There’s a whole  _ town _ by the river! Of  _ dragons _ ! I didn’t expect to find something  _ this _ amazing!”  _ A whole town? Hmm. _ Wren didn’t know there was another dragon town close by - the only one she really knew of was the one where Sky had gotten dragon-napped.  _ I need to find my map and add this place to it, then. _

Wren gently nudged her shoulder. “Hey, don’t explode with excitement, alright? We want you to make it back to the others in one piece.”

Ivy chuckled breezily. “Aww. I’ll try not to, since you asked politely.” She took another glance over her shoulder, still beaming. “Did you know this place existed, Wren?”

Letting go of Ivy’s hands, Wren shook her head. “No. I’ll have to add it to my map.”

“Wait, so if you’ve never been there…and you didn’t know this place existed…did we just discover a whole new dragon settlement?” Her eyes went wide with excitement. “This is one of the best days of my life!”

Raising an eyebrow, Wren laughed softly. “Oh? What are the others?”

“Well, there’s a lot! I can’t name them all now!” Ivy huffed, crossing her arms. “But…meeting you and Sky and riding the golden dragon are some of them.”

Wren tried to ignore the heat rising in her cheeks. She wasn’t sure how meeting her and Sky was one of Ivy’s best days at first, but thinking on it, it did make more sense. Since it was Ivy, after all.  _ But still. _

Ivy hummed quietly to herself. “Hmm. Could we…visit the town, maybe? Please?”

_ Visiting the dragon town? After what happened last time? Oh no, absolutely not- _ Wren really hoped her face hadn’t given away how she felt about the suggestion, but Ivy just frowned after taking another glance at Wren.

“I- look, Ivy. Please don’t take it personally, alright? I just don’t want something to happen to Sky again. He got dragon-napped the last time he went into a dragon city, and I…I don’t think I’d be able to handle it if it happened again.”

Ivy gave her an understanding smile. “Okay. What if we all went in this time? As a group.” She looked down at the branch. “But if you don’t want to go, I don’t want to force you. I think I could convince Leaf to let me go…”

Wren snorted. “I don’t think we have ten years on our hands, Ivy.”

She scoffed. “I’m sure he won’t be  _ that _ hard to convince!”

“I’m wishing you all the patience and luck in the world, then.” Wren then sighed, shrugging. “If we all go in a group  _ and _ you promise not to run off during the entire time, then we can go check it out.”

“ _ Really _ ?! We’re going? Yes!” Ivy immediately jumped down from the branch - though she actually waited for Wren this time, which Wren thought was already an improvement. “I can’t wait to tell Leaf and Sky!”

Wren climbed down the trunk, grunting. “Don’t bombard them with information, though! We don’t want them getting overwhelmed.”

Ivy snickered, lightly shoving Wren. “I can’t make any promises on that.”

The two walked back in the direction they had came from, not talking much for the rest of the walk. Wren had occasionally glanced at Ivy, but did so in a discreet manner.  _ Is she still upset with me for earlier? _ Ivy still seemed filled to the brim with excitement, already anticipating sharing their discovery with the others.  _ I don’t think she is right now, but… _

“Hey, Ivy?”

“Yeah?”

Wren grimaced. How should she word this? “You seem a lot more…cheerful right now. I was just wondering if uh…you were still upset with me for earlier?”

Ivy sighed. “Well, kind of. But not really. I do forgive you for it, though.” She shrugged. “Maybe we should…try to avoid talking about my dad for the time being, alright? And talk about something else? Hopefully something less…touchy.”

“That’s fine by me,” Wren exhaled. She smiled awkwardly at Ivy. “So, um. Friends? Friends-ish? I don’t know what we are, but you want to be that again?”

Ivy returned the awkward smile. “I’d like that. Friends sounds nice.”

The rest of the walk was filled with light, friendly chatter, though Wren couldn’t help but warily check the deep blue skies for any dragons every so often. Regardless, Wren couldn’t help but feel warm from head to toe as she walked next to Ivy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhh i don't normally leave notes at the beginning of a chapter but if this chapter seems poorly written to y'all or if you get the feeling i hated writing this chapter at the end...it's because i vehemently _despised_ writing this chapter by the very end lmao. mainly because i really didn't like writing in Leaf's pov, but also because i realised last minute that i messed up which town it was Sky got taken (i thought it was the Scorpion Den...thanks, wof wiki) so then i had to find a way to get around it (and frankly i'm still peeved about this happening in the first place). for simplicity's sake, i'm just going to say they entered Possibility from the northern half so they wouldn't end up seeing the large river like Wren and Sky did in L2. i hate geography /hj
> 
> i apologise for the month long wait, it normally does not take me this long to write a chapter for this fic. also i apologise for the abrupt sort of end to this chapter, i really wanted to get it over with because i really want to write more in the pov of...not Leaf lmao
> 
> TL;DR - i never want to write Leaf's pov for this fic ever again

**LEAF**

Leaf still thought that leaving Ivy and Wren on their lonesome was an awful idea, especially Ivy - Wren could handle being on her own, but Leaf somehow doubted Ivy was capable of that. It had been lingering on his mind since they left, and had stayed there the entire time they had been gone. Wren would probably tell him that he’s overreacting and worrying too much, but he couldn’t help it.

_ I know Ivy said they’d be fine, but…I just really hope they do know what they’re doing. _

As he continued to get lost in his own thoughts, Sky’s voice caught his attention.

“Leaf! Come here!”

_ What is it this time? _ He trudged over to where Sky stood, his hands in his trouser’s pockets. Of course, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out - it was probably another snail. Leaf wasn’t exactly sure  _ what _ Sky found so alluring about snails and similar animals, but it was an interesting way to pass the time while waiting for Wren and Ivy, it turned out.

Leaf raised an eyebrow at the snail slowly inching its way across the small branch. Sky simply stared at it in awe, his smile wide.  _ I still find it weird that a dragon can be just as fascinated with animals like humans can, _ He thought briefly, before shaking it away.  _ I shouldn’t think like that…especially when Wren is around. _

He sighed inwardly.  _ Glad I didn’t let that one slip. _

“So…you just watch the snail?” He asked, hoping his tone didn’t sound to judging.

Sky nodded. “Yep! Aren’t they amazing?”

Leaf shrugged. “I suppose.” He remained silent for a bit longer, his gaze still on the snail - it was now munching on one of the leaves on the edge of the branch. “Don’t you ever get bored of just watching them, though?”

Shaking his head, Sky blinked slowly at the snail. “No. Don’t you find it hard to get bored of doing something you love?”

“Well…yes. I guess you have a point,” Leaf conceded.  _ The only thing I guess I really “loved” doing was training to become a dragonslayer…but that’s not my goal. Not any more. _

_ Hmm. Perhaps I should expand my horizons a bit more. _

Leaf continued to watch the snail, his arms folded - he still couldn't find what was so interesting about it, but it was relaxing, in a way.  _ Aside from the fact that Ivy and Wren might get eaten while they're out scouting ahead, and- _

His thoughts were cut off by the sound of footsteps and faint laughter - he turned around to see Ivy and Wren walking towards them, chatting merrily. Sky also seemed to notice, his ears immediately pricking up. Ivy rushed over to Leaf, a wide grin on her face.

"Leaf, guess what we found? A whole dragon city! Isn't that  _ amazing _ ?" She asked, her hands shivering with excitement.

He let out a small, wary chuckle. "That's great, Ivy."

Ivy nodded. "And Wren said we can go explore it if I don't go running off! Aren't you excited?"

Leaf gave her an awkward smile, unsure how to answer.  _ Going inside of a dragon city for no good reason? No, Ivy, I am the exact opposite of excited. _ He wasn't going to say that out loud, though. Ivy looked genuinely pleased with herself at the moment, and he didn't want to bring down her mood. Wren seemed to pick up on it too - the stare she gave him spoke for itself.

“In a way, I guess,” He replied. Ivy seemed baffled by his response, but he turned to Wren before she could ask what he meant. “…so how exactly do you plan to keep Ivy from running off?”

Wren remained quiet for a moment. “I’ll think of something.”

Ivy placed her hands on her hips, huffing. “I’m  _ right here _ . I’ll have you both know that I’m perfectly capable of containing my excitement!”

Leaf arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you, though?”

Ivy was about to respond, but thought better of it, instead refusing to meet Leaf’s gaze.  _ I…probably could have said that a lot better. _

_ Or not say it at all, _ spoke the little voice inside his head. He wanted to apologise, but it was clear that Ivy wasn’t in the mood to listen - or at least, that’s what it looked like. Leaf only sighed, lightly kicking a nearby pebble.

Wren glanced up at Sky. “So…you guys find any snails while we were gone?”

Sky brightened up. “Yes! We found this little guy right here.”  _ ‘We’? I think that was you… _ He gestured to the snail with his talon. “Isn’t it adorable?”

Laughing, Wren nodded. “It is. Not as adorable as you, of course.”

He shared her laughter, smiling back at her. “So…you guys are planning to go to that dragon city? You aren’t planning on going in by yourselves, are you?”

“Well…no.” The look on Wren’s face told Leaf another story, her expression an awkward grimace - he knew she was referring to Sky specifically.  _ I mean, that makes sense. Weren’t she and Sky escaping from a dragon palace because he got dragon-napped, or something like that? _ He couldn’t blame her for being reluctant to let Sky come with.

Ivy gently rubbed Wren’s back. “Aww, Wren. I’m sure if we all stick together, nothing bad will happen.” Wren seemed unconvinced, but Ivy’s words seemed to get her to relax a bit. Leaf found it a bit odd, but didn’t comment on it.  _ It would make sense if they got closer while they were out scouting. _

Sky’s gaze on Wren softened. “Wren, are you…are you scared that I might get taken again? Is that what this is all about?”

Wren crossed her arms, glancing away. “I…yeah. I guess it’s really stupid to worry about, since we’re all going in, but…” She looked like she was fighting back tears. “You’re still my baby dragon. If something happened to you because I was being careless, then-”

She sighed, rubbing her eyes. Wren didn’t say much else, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Sky came over to her, gently nudging her. Ivy also slung her other arm around Wren. Leaf was hesitant at first but joined them, also hugging Wren. Wren let out a quiet sniff, though a smile began to spread on her face.

Sky pulled back, returning her gesture. “Wren, we’ll be as careful as possible, alright? Just for you.”

Wren wiped away another tear, laughing. “You don’t need to do that with me around!” She placed her hand on top of Ivy’s arm. “But seriously, thanks. It means a lot.”

Ivy's smile grew. "Glad we could help! Please don't be worried about opening up to us about this, if you feel comfortable with it."

Leaf wasn't sure if it was Ivy just being nice or if she was hoping Wren would open up to them more often, but Wren didn't seem to mind it either way.  _ And honestly…I do hope she does open up to us more. _

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Wren eventually replied. She glanced back at the city. "For now…let's just head to the city."

…

Leaf was trying to calm his nerves as they walked towards the town, but it was becoming a waste of energy to do so. He was sitting on Sky's back, hopefully situated in a place where he wouldn't be easily spotted (according to Wren, anyways). Wren and Ivy were sitting closer to Sky's shoulders - Leaf couldn't understand why they would want to, though.

_ I mean, it isn't me up there, so I suppose that's better…but I still don't like the fact that Ivy is up there. _ He supposed it was safe since Wren was with her, but…it didn’t make him feel any better about the fact that they were more out in the open,  _ and _ that they took an even higher position to settle on. The two were already chatting quietly - Leaf was barely able to hear them.

Ivy’s eyes were wide with amazement once Wren finished speaking. “So that’s what hearing Dragon up close is like! That’s… _ incredible _ .” Leaf pursed his lips.  _ It’d be nice if someone took that much interest in my abilities, but…that’s probably just Ivy being Ivy. _

Wren grinned awkwardly. “I knew you’d think so. Honestly, I’m more surprised it took you this long to bring it up.”

“I guess I’m sort of predictable, heh,” Ivy replied, smothering a giggle. “So what’s it like, speaking Dragon? Does it feel any different from speaking our language, or does it feel the same?”

Wren blinked in surprise, apparently not expecting that question - but she didn’t seem to mind, and even seemed intrigued by some of Ivy’s questions. She managed to answer most of the questions, though Leaf could tell that she was unsure how to answer most of them, if not all. Once Ivy went quiet, Wren let out a sigh.

She let out a snort of laughter. “Keeping up with all your questions is kind of hard, I’ll admit. But those are good questions, I don’t think I know some of them myself.” She was quiet for a moment, then asked, “How does learning Dragon sound?”

The look on Ivy’s face told Leaf everything he needed to know - the way her eyes and nose crinkled, the wide grin on her face, the way her hands seemed to be quivering…Leaf would’ve bet that if they weren’t in a dragon settlement, Ivy would’ve let out a thrilled squeal.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Wren joked, raising an eyebrow. Ivy’s only response was a few giggles, a hint of a blush in her cheeks.

Leaf turned away from them - he wasn’t particularly interested in hearing the rest of their conversation, as he could already tell where it was going. His gaze flickered to their surroundings - a few other dragons were making their own way across the streets, but didn't seem to pay much attention to Sky, or the fact that he had three humans sitting on his back.  _ Or maybe it's just that we're hardly noticeable. …I'm fine with that. _

Though he was practicing, Leaf still found it hard to decipher dragon expressions. But even he could tell that some of the passersby had been giving them strange looks. The odd stares made him think otherwise, that they were really that noticeable - though it seemed more likely that they had just thought Sky's scale colours looked odd, for a mountain dragon. Either way, he found it bothersome.

The streets grew more crowded as they continued walking throughout the town. Leaf could feel his heartbeat racing - now he  _ really _ wished that Ivy hadn’t asked to head directly into the town. Instead he simply tried to steel his nerves, attempting to push away his worries.


	9. Chapter 9

**ROWAN**

“So what do you guys plan on naming the town?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long will it take to build the town?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

“…is it safe to assume you guys don’t know what you’re doing?”

Rowan wasn’t sure how much more of Bluebell’s questions she could handle. She was half tempted to start ignoring her, which Rowan knew far too well that Bluebell would call her out for - her other option was just to tell Bluebell to wait until they met up with Grove and the others, which Bluebell wasn’t going to do, from past experiences. Instead Rowan only groaned, glancing back at Bluebell.

“We’ll figure things out once we group up.”

Bluebell sighed expressively. “Isn’t that just your fancy way of saying ‘I don’t know’? It’s okay, you can tell me. I won’t judge you - well, maybe a little bit.”

Rowan resisted the urge to snap at Bluebell and inhaled sharply, still walking along the path. Bluebell seemed to notice, now staying quiet.  _ That…is a development, I suppose. I can work with this. _ She couldn’t help but feel a smidge bad, but attempted to shrug it off. Apologising would just lead to more questions from Bluebell, and Rowan wasn’t in the mood to answer things that they  _ both _ knew that Rowan had no answer to.

The rest of the walk was silent, much to Rowan’s relief and…guilt, was it? She wasn’t entirely sure. Soon enough, they finally reached the entrance to Talisman - and as Rowan expected, the others were waiting for them. With them she spotted both Mallow…and Camellia?  _ What did they bribe her with to convince her to help? _ Before Rowan could say anything, Cranberry came rushing over to her, almost tackling Rowan to the ground.

“Cran-” Rowan yelped, though her shock was quickly drowned out by her own laughter. Cranberry pulled back, giggling as well.

She tilted her head. “Feeling any better?”

Rowan shrugged. “Not by much.”

Cranberry was about to say something else, but she took one glance at the smirk on Bluebell’s face and grumbled something Rowan couldn’t quite catch, her cheeks flushing. Rowan felt her own face heating up, but didn’t comment on it. Grove walked over to them, chuckling as well.

“Glad you’re doing a little better,” He replied, his voice soft. Rowan only blushed in response, unable to hold back a smile. “We managed to convince Camellia and Mallow to help, despite Camellia being…well, Camellia-”

“ _ Excuse me _ ? I never agreed to help!” Camellia snapped, marching up to Grove. “I only agreed because I wanted to give  _ someone _ here a piece of my mind!”

Thyme blinked quizzically at her. “But we asked if you would like to help us build our new village…”

Camellia whipped her head around to glare at him. “If I wanted to hear your opinion, I would’ve asked!”

Grimacing, Thyme avoided her gaze. “I was just saying.”

Camellia shot one more venomous glare at him before turning back to Rowan. “Anyways.  _ You _ .”

Cranberry looked as if she was about to slap Camellia into the dirt. “You touch Rowan, and I’ll-”

“Cran, don’t. Its inevitable, anyways,” Rowan sighed, placing her hand on Cranberry’s shoulder. “What is it, Camellia?”

“You know very well what it is! You know, the lying to us for several years about Wren? Our  _ sister _ ? I can’t believe you!” Camellia stopped briefly to catch her breath, huffing rather heavily. “I knew you never cared about us much, but to hide something so important like this?  _ Inexcusable _ .”

Rowan was barely able to hold Camellia’s gaze. “I do care about you all,” She managed to choke out. “I just…”

Camellia scoffed. “You just what? Couldn’t trust us with something like this? Because you should know that I wouldn’t spread anything of the sort to the other villagers! We could’ve helped you, Rowan! Don’t you understand that?”

Mallow walked over to Camellia, sighing. “I hate to say it, but…she does have a point, Rowan.” She glanced up at Rowan. “You’ve always been distant from us, but you should’ve known that Camellia and I would be willing to help you.”

Cranberry let out a quiet snort. “Imagine Camellia wanting to help someone other than herself. She certainly seems to be in the helping mood right now.”

“ _ Cranberry _ ,” Rowan warned, though she knew there was no use.  _ Cranberry just isn’t going to leave it be, even after whatever happens today… _

Bluebell grimaced at Mallow. “ _ Camellia _ ? Willing to help? Something isn’t adding up here.”

Camellia glowered Bluebell intensely. “ _ Shut it _ .”

Before Camellia could get any more words in, Grove stepped in between her and Rowan. He scowled at her.

“You either come with us to help build our town, or stay here. Yelling at Rowan is  _ not _ an option.”

“I was not-” Camellia began, but one look at Cranberry’s harsh stare immediately made her go silent. “Fine. I’ll help you build your town or whatever. I’m sure it’ll be better than staying in this dump, anyways.”

She didn’t wait for his answer, instead pushing past Rowan and stomping ahead. Mallow only gave Grove and Rowan an apologetic frown, rushing after her. Thyme trudged over to Rowan, glaring at Camellia.

He scoffed at her. "The audacity she has, sheesh…I get why you don't like her much, Rowan."

Rowan didn't look at him. "I…it's fine, Thyme. She does have some points."  _ Well, mostly Mallow, but… _

Cranberry rolled her eyes. "Don't let her get to you. For now let's just make sure they don't get themselves hurt."

…

It had been a couple of minutes since they had chased after Camellia and Mallow - Camellia just barely seemed to calm down, or at least enough to avoid lashing out at Rowan every five seconds.  _ It's useless to hope she'll just give up on it. She's too stubborn for that and we all know it. _ For the time being, they decided to build a few shelters for them. Rowan held her doubts that it was the best plan, but she wasn't in the mood to argue - not to mention, she didn't want to be out in the open if it happened to rain, so she supposed it was better than nothing.

Cranberry frowned at the pile of sticks she, Rowan, and Bluebell had gathered. "I still don't get how we'll make anything suitable for  _ one _ person, let alone  _ seven _ ."

"Grove probably knows what he's doing," Rowan reminded her, though it was also a reminder for herself.

Bluebell snorted. "Yeah,  _ you _ would say that."

Rowan glared at her, her cheeks flushing. "He had to help his father build their farm back in Talisman! It's only natural to assume he knows what he's doing."

The only response from Cranberry was a few muffled laughs. Rowan rolled her eyes, though she couldn't help but grin while doing so.  _ Oh well. At least it's something to laugh about in the meanwhile. _ Bluebell joined her laughter for a brief moment before stretching her arms, yawning.

"I wonder what Camellia's even doing," She mumbled absentmindedly. "I bet she's arguing that she shouldn't be forced to work because she's 'above these kinds of menial tasks' or some shit like that."

Rowan blinked in surprise. "I was not expecting a swear to come out of your mouth, of all people."

Bluebell shrugged. "Blame mom and dad."

Rowan could already feel her muscles tensing at the implications that statement had. Cranberry gently pat Rowan's back, her expression unreadable. Though Rowan normally would’ve flinched at the touch if it was anyone else, she simply accepted it - if Bluebell wasn’t there, Rowan probably would've leaned onto Cranberry’s shoulder for more comfort.

Cranberry frowned. “That is true, though. It’s been pretty quiet for the past couple of minutes. Should we be concerned?”

Bluebell held in another snort of laughter. “Probably.”

“Well, we might as well go check, right? Besides, Grove is probably waiting for us to return by now.” Rowan grabbed a few sticks, gesturing for Cranberry and Bluebell to do the same.

As they made their way back to the others, Rowan couldn’t help but worry about how the others were handling Camellia, now that Bluebell had mentioned her. In all honesty, Rowan still wasn’t sure what to think of the fact that Camellia was still with them.  _ She gets bored of things really easily. I’m surprised she didn’t lose interest the moment Grove told her that ‘yelling at me’ wasn’t an option. _ If Rowan had to guess, Camellia was probably arguing with Grove or Thyme by now.  _ Or best case scenario, she's arguing with BOTH… _

Once they reached the rest of the group, Rowan hoped that nothing too out of hand had happened while they were gone. The looks on their faces said otherwise - she scanned the small clearing for Camellia. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't snapping at Grove or Thyme - rather, she looked as if she was about to  _ start _ yelling at someone.  _ Oh well. A quiet Camellia is the best Camellia. _

That aside, Camellia was standing next to Grove and Thyme, a look of disapproval on her face. Grove soon noticed Rowan, rushing over to her.

He let out a sigh of relief. "You guys are back sooner than expected."

"Yeah, well we couldn't leave you guys with Camellia too long. That sounds like a strain on your health," Rowan joked, keeping her laughter quiet so Camellia wouldn't hear. "What happened?"

Grove took the sticks out of her arms. "I- well…you'll see for yourself." He glanced at the sticks in Cranberry's arms, grinning. "Thanks, with these I can probably get started on something."

Bluebell scoffed. "What, no thanks for me? Hmph."

Cranberry playfully jabbed her with a stick. "Oh, hush. I'm sure it was for you too." Bluebell giggled, lightly jabbing her back. Cranberry turned to Grove, smiling. "You're welcome, though! I can go back out and get some more if you want."

He blinked in surprise, then shook his head. "Nah, I asked Thyme and Camellia to get some extra wood just in case."  _ Thyme and Camellia? Is that even safe? _ Grove gently nudged her shoulder, albeit awkwardly due to the sticks in his arms. "Besides, I also want to spend more time with you. It's not like it's going to get easier from here."

Rowan held back a sigh.  _ He's not wrong, _ She thought, feeling a pang of disappointment.  _ Building a town is going to be so time consuming. _ She almost wished that Wren and Leaf and their friends were still there to help them.  _ Almost _ .

"Yeah, I know…" Cranberry mumbled, shrugging. She hesitated briefly, but took Rowan's hand. "We should go check out what they found for now, alright?"

"Alright."

Rowan simply let Cranberry take the lead as they walked over. Of course, there was no real need to, but it did make Rowan feel the tiniest bit better. Thyme stepped aside once he saw the two, surprised. Camellia just huffed, crossing her arms. In front of them was a boy with slightly worn down clothing - he looked like he was around Leaf’s age, Rowan wanted to guess. He had poorly kept short, dark brown hair and wary light brown eyes that darted around the small clearing.

_ It’s Tadpole, _ Rowan realised with a jolt. The same dragonmancer apprentice who was ordered to take Grove to be sacrificed.

Camellia narrowed her eyes. “We found this little pest following us back to Grove and Mallow.” She let out a groan - though Rowan thought it sounded more like a growl, if anything. “I bet he’s spying on us for those dragonmancers.”

Tadpole yelped, inching away from her. “I told you, I’m not!”

“Keep your mouth shut until I give you permission to speak!” She shot back, raising her fist - Thyme began to pull it back down before she could scare Tadpole any further. Camellia jerked her hand back, practically hissing at him. He only took a few steps back, vaguely terrified yet amused at the same time.

Rowan glared at them both. “ _ Enough _ .” She leaned into Cranberry’s shoulder, her expression relaxing slightly. “Cranberry, do you want to handle this? After all, you are the mayor…”

Cranberry’s gaze widened, taken off-guard. “I mean, I guess so now that you mention it?” She inhaled sharply as she turned to Tadpole. “What were you doing, following them?” Before waiting for his response, she immediately turned to Camellia. “To clarify, I’m asking  _ Tadpole _ .”

Rowan couldn’t catch what Camellia said underneath her breath, and she honestly didn’t want to know, judging from the look on Thyme’s face. Tadpole took one last glance at Camellia before sighing.

“I-I overheard you guys talking to Camellia and Mallow about your new village. I want to help, if that’s alright,” He mumbled, unable to meet anyone’s gaze.

Camellia scoffed. “He’s probably lying. He  _ is _ a dragonmancer apprentice, after all. I bet he wanted to be one, even! Why can’t we just kick him back to Talisman?”

“Please don’t!” He begged. “I don’t want to go back to Talisman! Everyone there keeps giving me judgmental looks because I used to be an apprentice. I don’t feel safe there. Can’t I please stay with you guys?”

Rowan grimaced.  _ So they did do something about the dragonmancers? Impressive. _ She couldn’t help but feel slightly bad for Tadpole, though - would that have been the same case for Leaf if he stayed in Talisman? Or if any of her sisters were an apprentice?  _ Not that any of them would want to stay, but… _ There was a part of her that wanted to help the poor kid out. After all, he was a former apprentice, just like Leaf.

_ But he’s the same apprentice who willingly followed Gorge’s orders to arrest Grove, _ She reminded herself.  _ He almost got us sacrificed. _ Cranberry seemed to notice, if not for the hand she rested on Rowan’s shoulder.

She sighed. “If you can prove you’re trustworthy to us, then you can stay for as long as you’d like. But I’ll admit…it will be hard for some of us to trust you fully. Your actions as a dragonmancer apprentice aren’t the most forgettable.”

“Thank you!” Tadpole cried, now beaming. “I promise I’ll make it up to you guys!”

“Are you  _ kidding _ me? He’s obviously a spy!” Camellia spat. Before anyone could argue with her, she stormed off in the opposite direction.

Cranberry glanced nervously at Rowan. “Did I do that right? It feels like I did awful.”

Thyme nodded. “I think you did pretty good! Don’t listen to her.”

“Yeah,” Rowan added. “Camellia’s just being an-”

Cranberry laughed softly. “I get it, I get it! Thanks for the support, though.”

An awkward silence loomed over everyone as Camellia didn’t seem to be returning any time soon.  _ I guess I can understand why she’s angry, but…why does she have to be so irritating about it? Moons… _

“So…anyone want to go fetch her?” Thyme coughed.

No one said anything until Mallow spoke up. “I can get her,” She sighed. She glared at Thyme. “But you’re coming with me, since you suggested it.”

He grimaced. “Why?”

“I’m not going to face her by myself when she’s in a mood!” Mallow protested. “Come on!”

Despite his grumbling, Thyme went along with her, following Camellia’s trail. Rowan had to resist the urge to sigh once they left. How were they supposed to get anything done like this?


	10. Chapter 10

**BROOK**

It was the day for the patrol to the old ruins, and honestly? Brook had her doubts about how productive it would be already. They were going off the assumption that everyone who was banished was still alive. What if the effects of the Wingwatcher arrests were worse than she had initially imagined? There wasn't much of a way to tell.

 _But I did make it official. And I am the one who proposed the idea…_ There wasn’t really a way to back out from it, even if Brook wanted to. _I…probably should’ve just stayed in Valor instead of going with…_

She made an attempt to push those worries aside, however - she was going to see if the others were alright, and wouldn't rest until she saw them for herself. Next to Brook's side was Lark, who seemed to be shivering slightly.

Brook raised an eyebrow. "You alright?"

Lark grimaced. "Yes, I am - well, I think I am, anyways…" She took another look at the blueprints and sighed. "You're really sure about letting me take over?"

"Lark, I trust that you'll do your best no matter what happens. I'm confident that everything will be fine," Brook assured her, smiling a little. She shrugged. "Besides, you've already ran a lot of helpful projects for Valor in the past. This won't be any different, I'm sure."

Lark only smiled back, laughing to herself. _Well, at least that seemed to ease her nerves._ Brook shared Lark's gaze briefly before turning back towards one of the exits closest to the ruins. After some more silence passed between the two, Lark spoke up once again.

“…so. Why are you even headed to the ruins in the first place?”

 _Oooh, that’s the kind of question I was hoping you_ wouldn’t _ask._ Of course, Brook was more than willing to answer, but she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to hold onto her anger with Heath and keep it from taking over the conversation - she didn’t particularly want to hurt Lark, and there was no time for Brook to complain about all the fine details, anyhow.

Brook grimaced. “That’s where several of the banished have been hiding. For years now, if my memory serves me correctly.”

Lark paused for a moment, a shocked yet relieved look on her face. “You mean…they aren’t dead? I thought they had to be, living out on the surface like that…”

“No. Or at least, not all of them, if the last report I got about the ruins is true…” Brook kept her sights focused on the path ahead of her, still walking. “But thinking they were dead was probably something Heath could’ve settled for, if actual death didn’t happen.”

“I…” Lark was quiet for a moment. “I guess I can agree with that.”

The rest of their walk was void of talk, much to Brook’s concern. _Did I say the wrong thing to her? Probably._ She didn’t have much time to dwell on it, though - she could ask Lark about it later. Nearby she caught sight of Holly, who was pacing within the tunnel corridors. Holly noticed Brook before she could say anything, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Commander, I'm so glad I found you!"

Brook narrowed her eyes - neither Parsley, Daffodil, or Violet was with her. _What happened to my order to keep an eye on those two?_ " _Holly_."

Holly shrinked back at her tone. "I know what it might look like, but please hear me out-"

Lark placed a hand on Brook's shoulder - she exhaled deeply, trying her hardest to avoid sounding exasperated already. _It might be that Holly wasn't shirking her tasks this time. Don't assume too much._

_Don't act like Heath would._

"Go on."

Holly let out a brief sigh of relief before continuing. “I knew that you would be heading out soon, so I decided to find the kids you asked Parsley and I to watch. …Only, I’m not sure where they are?”

Lark leaned into Brook’s shoulder. “She means Daffodil and Violet, right?” Brook gave her a subtle nod - she let out a quiet groan of irritation. “Those girls really haven’t changed at all.”

“Well that’s…not ideal. I had them confined to the caves before we left, so there shouldn’t be any reason they’d be outside Valor. I made sure no one told them when we were heading out, either.”

Shrugging, Holly frowned. “If that’s the case, then I’m not all that worried. There’s only so many exits to sneak out of Valor from.”

Lark looked doubtful, but said nothing. _I’m guessing they aren’t her favourite kids, huh?_ Brook could recall Ivy constantly hanging out with Daffodil and Violet - she supposed it made sense that Lark wasn’t particularly fond of them, their strong personalities considered.

Brook crossed her arms. “I suppose so. Where’s Parsley?”

“She’s probably searching for them, I can’t imagine her slacking on the job. She’s too much of a-” Holly stopped suddenly, growing quiet. “What’s the word again? I forgot.”

“I am _not_ helping you insult Parsley,” Brook reprimanded her, scoffing. “As long as you two keep them within Valor, I don’t really care what you do. I can’t risk losing any more apprentices.” _Especially the really promising ones…_

Holly snorted. “Alright, alright! I’ll try my best to make sure they stay in the caves. Good luck out on the surface, commander.”

She rushed off, giving Brook a small wave as she left. Lark frowned.

"Aren't you worried about Daffodil and Violet making an attempt to sneak out right now? I wouldn't put it past those two…"

Brook thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not really. There's only so many exits leading to the ruins." _Well, that and Violet's been trying her hardest to avoid everyone, even Daffodil._ Brook wanted to guess something had gone down between the two after getting caught, but she wasn’t entirely sure. _Either way, if anything they’ll just have to look out for Daffodil…_

Lark looked doubtful, but didn't argue. The rest of the walk was silent, up until they reached the small group of Wingwatchers, with Foxglove leaning against one of the tunnel’s walls, waiting patiently. She perked up upon seeing Brook, as did a few of the others.

Foxglove glanced back at the patrol, then back at Brook. “I see you had a long walk.” There was a small smirk on her face - Brook tried to ignore it to the best of her ability.

Lark cleared her throat briefly, grabbing Brook’s attention. “Well, um…I guess you’re leaving now, right?”

“Yes? I mean, I would hope so…”

“Good luck up there.” Lark gave her an awkward, unsure smile. “And please don’t die.”

Brook laughed softly. “Aw, thanks. If I die, then make sure you yell at me for it, alright?”

Lark simply stared at Brook for a moment, unblinking. “If you were dead, how would I be able to yell at you? That makes no sense…”

Stifling a few more laughs, Brook nudged Lark’s shoulder. “Oh, I’m sure you won’t have to figure that out, anyways.” Thinking her words over a bit more, she added, “And good luck to you too, not that you’ll need it to handle this.”

Lark scoffed, though the smile on her face said otherwise. She waved at Brook one last time before heading off in the direction of the damaged tunnel, muttering to herself. Brook held back a few chuckles, turning back to the group.

Foxglove sighed. “We should probably get going now. Right, commander?”

Brook nodded, gesturing for the others to head out first. _I can only hope this turns out alright…_

…

It had been a few hours since they had set out, and already Brook was starting to regret coming along even more than she had initially. While for the most part, things seemed oddly alright on the surface (to Brook, anyways - she found the decreasing amount of dragons flying overhead odd). And no one on the patrol had started fighting - then again, it wasn't like Parsley was on the patrol, who often picked fights with Yarrow. _Foxglove really does know who can and can't be put together on a patrol._

Still, she couldn't help but worry. What if something happened to her while she was out on the surface? Valor couldn't have that - _not again,_ she told herself. _Valor won't lose its lord now. Or at least, it better not._ What would happen to Valor if it lost her now? Who would take her pace? _Would it technically be Forest? He is my only son…and only child, at that..._

_Moons above, I hope I made the right choice in going with this patrol._

Squirrel was walking alongside Brook, while Foxglove took the lead. Behind her were Yarrow and Wintersweet, both of which seemed to be sticking close. Brook frowned. _I'm glad ve's made a friend, but…Wintersweet really needs to make more friends around vis age._

Brook glanced at Squirrel, who was just barely containing his excitement. “So…I'm guessing you'll be happy to see a certain someone.”

His cheeks flushed. “Well, I…yes.” He exhaled deeply, sounding vaguely annoyed. “Do you really have to tease me about it too? Foxglove and Moth are bad enough…”

“Oh, I can imagine,” Brook snorted. She didn’t know Moth that well, but from what she'd heard from Chipmunk and Squirrel, teasing his older brothers was a favourite hobby of his. “But I'll stop, just for now.”

Squirrel rolled his eyes, smiling. “Gee, thanks.”

Brook only replied with a simple laugh, turning her attention back to the upcoming ruins. She felt a boulder drop in her stomach upon seeing it. _That's Valor. That's my home._

_And it's all gone._

She had wondered if Heath ever felt sick whenever he came to the ruins. Was he aware of how much pain he brought after that day? Did he...even feel the slightest bit guilty over it? _Probably not. It's Heath, after all. He's more likely to mourn for his treasure, if anything._

Pushing aside the feelings of unease and grief, Brook picked up her pace, not saying a word. _Let's just get this over with._ She soon caught up with Foxglove, who was already giving the signal from the top of one of the crumbled buildings. Sure enough, Pine and Azalea came out of the shadows, surprised. Both approached apprehensively, before Pine's face lit up. He rushed over to Foxglove and Brook, beaming. Azalea simply walked over, following him.

“You guys are okay!” Pine breathed. He took Foxglove's hands, squeezing them slightly. “I got so worried when I heard Heath arrested you guys-”

“Relax, Pine. We're okay now,” Foxglove reprimanded him, though Brook could tell she was grateful.

Azalea only raised a brow. “We also heard that Heath planned on executing you all. You sure?”

Foxglove ignored her, gesturing for Squirrel to step forwards. He approached Pine awkwardly, a meek smile on his face.

“Hey Pine.”

Pine let go of Foxglove's hands, embracing Squirrel. “Thank the moons you're alright! I’ve been so concerned since you stopped showing up with Foxglove to check on us, and then I hear you could’ve gotten executed-” He took in a deep breath. “You worry me so much.”

“That is true,” Azalea chimed in, casting an irate glare towards Pine. “I could go on and on about all the things he’s said, but I’ll spare you.” She turned to Brook, her gaze more serious. “I wouldn’t have expected a whole patrol to come by, though. Does this mean…?”

Squirrel nodded. “Yeah. Heath isn’t Valor’s lord any more. You can all go home now, if you want.”

Azalea frowned. “Wait, then who’s the new lord? And what did you decide to do with him?”

Brook inhaled sharply. “I’m the new lord of Valor, apparently. It was Ivy’s decision, not mine.”

“Of course _she’d_ make the decision for everyone,” She muttered, crossing her arms. Foxglove shot a glare at her, though Azalea didn’t seem to notice. “You didn’t answer my other question. What did you do about Heath?”

“For now, he’s a regular citizen of Valor. I’m not exactly sure what would be best to do about him right now, and I’m swamped enough.”

Azalea stared at her in disbelief. “He- that awful man…you kept him _alive_? After all he’s done?”

Brook avoided meeting Azalea’s gaze. “I don’t think I could handle giving him a death sentence. Not now, not ever.” _Not only that, but…Lark and Ivy would be devastated. I couldn’t willingly do that to them._

“I can’t believe the Commander Brook I knew would be the same one casually defending the vile man who banished us out here to die,” Azalea spat. “Don’t expect me to come back until you do something about him, _Brook_.”

Before Brook could say anything else, Azalea stormed off further into the ruins. _I’m not defending him. I just haven’t gotten around to dealing with Heath properly yet…_ But she knew that those words would be wasted on Azalea. She turned to the others - Foxglove had an expression of concern on her face, though Brook wasn’t entirely sure if it was meant for Azalea or for her. Yarrow, who had been watching the scene with narrowed eyes, glanced at Pine.

“Could you take us to see the others?” He asked, his voice somewhat hoarse. “I…I need to know if she’s still gone with my own eyes.”

 _He’s talking about Aster,_ Brook realised. Both Azalea and Aster were his older cousins, and if she was recalling correctly, he had been especially close with Aster. _Did she ever make it to the Indestructible City after all? I doubt it, but…there’s no way she’d come back. Not after Heath._

Pine grimaced, but nodded. “Yeah, we probably should do that anyways. I’ll go on ahead.” He took the lead, which prompted Squirrel and Foxglove to catch up to him.

Yarrow was about to rush to catch up to them, but looked back at Wintersweet, who was nervously glancing up at the sky every so often. He gently nudged vis shoulder.

“Hey, kid? Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave your side,” Yarrow murmured.

Wintersweet gave him an awkward smile, slightly leaning onto Yarrow. “I-I know that, but thanks.”

Brook let them go ahead, remaining in the back. _At least Wintersweet has someone ve can rely on._ She avoided looking around the collapsed structures and ravaged crops, feeling sick. _How could Heath even stand being here for a second? How could anyone, even?_

That was probably how the banished felt, having lived in the ruins for so long. _And I couldn’t do much to help,_ She thought, already feeling guilty. _Not without looking suspicious to Heath._

_Hopefully I can make it up to them now._


	11. Chapter 11

**WREN**

_ Crap crap crap crap- _

Wren's gaze remained on the streets of the city as she continued cursing underneath her breath. Ivy had tried to keep both herself and Wren calm, but anyone could see that it wasn't working. Sky stared in the same direction as her, worried.

Leaf was gone. Wren was pretty sure he had fallen off Sky's back while they headed into the more crowded part of the town, but it remained that he was likely lost.  _ If not dead, _ She added grimly.

Sky tapped his talons together nervously. “I think this is my fault,” He mumbled. “I should've been more careful with him, especially since he was on my back.”

Ivy shook her head, lightly patting his side. “Don't blame yourself, Sky. I probably shouldn't have suggested going here in the first place. Something was bound to happen and I should've known better…”

“It's no one's fault!” Wren argued. “None of us could've predicted it would happen. Instead of blaming ourselves, we need to find him before he gets himself killed!”  _ I'm such a hypocrite for that, _ She thought.  _ I could've told Ivy no and she would've accepted that as an answer, I'm sure. _

Ivy sighed in defeat. “Okay then. Where should we start looking?”

For a moment, they all remained quiet.  _ Maybe nearby that bridge? Then again, I think we would've heard something if he fell into the water…  _ Wren let out a quiet groan, her head starting to hurt. Ivy gently rested her hand on Wren's shoulder, which almost caused Wren to yelp in surprise. She had an expression of concern on her face, though it was also wracked with worry for Leaf.  _ Why is she so concerned for me right now? Is it that obvious that I'm in a mood? _

She frowned. “Don't stress yourself out, either. It won't do you or anyone any good.”

Wren wanted to make a retort, but instead settled for a sharp inhale.  _ She's right, but…it also won't do us any good to remain completely unrelaxed about this. And seems practically impossible. _

“Any ideas?” She asked after taking one last deep breath.

Sky pointed over in the area near the side of the town they had come in; before the bridge were several streets that sprawled into smaller pathways, the main one leading into the other side of town. A few stalls had been set up close by - would one of the dragons there have seen a small human fall off a pale coloured mountain dragon's back?  _ And…have possibly eaten him? _ She hated the idea, but it wasn't implausible.

“We could try looking over there - I think that might be where he fell off, anyways,” Sky explained.

Wren shrugged. “Better idea than mine, I'm sure. Ivy?”

Ivy stared at Wren, taken out of her brief daze. “…yeah?” Before Wren could repeat herself, Ivy blinked in sudden realisation. “Oh, yes! That sounds like a good plan, Sky!”

_ Just how much are you even paying attention to this? _ Wren wanted to ask out loud, but quickly decided it was for the best that she said nothing about Ivy's behaviour. She instead began to climb onto Sky’s back, gesturing for Ivy to hop on. Ivy struggled for a while, but eventually managed to get on with both Wren and Sky's help.  _ She's getting better, at the very least… _

As Sky made his way through the significantly smaller crowd, Wren managed to tear her gaze away from Ivy.  _ Her questions were pretty odd…but also kind of interesting, _ She thought, craning her neck to see if she could spot Leaf anywhere.  _ I’ve never thought about it much, I guess. _

Wren could feel Ivy unconsciously leaning onto her - Ivy herself didn't seem to notice.  _ Is she just doing that for comfort? …does she really trust me that much? _ She didn't say anything to Ivy about it, and felt perfectly content with avoiding the topic.  _ Besides…I really don't want to worry her even more. _

Upon reaching the area, Wren's gaze darted across the bridge and river underneath it.  _ I don't think he would've fallen into the river that easily. And even then, I'm pretty sure Rowan taught him how to swim… _

Ivy hummed quietly. “I don't think we lost him over here. Maybe it was in the middle of the crowd?” She grimaced at the streets. “Ugh…I know you said this isn't my fault, but it certainly  _ feels _ like it.”

“I get that. I kind of feel the same way,” Wren confessed, surprising Ivy. “But we need to focus on finding Leaf right now, okay? I’m certain that he doesn’t blame any of us for this, either.”

Her expression of surprise morphed into a small smile. “If you say so. I’ll try.” She crossed her arms, frowning. “Do you think we really lost him here, though? I can’t spot him anywhere.”

Wren shrugged. “Maybe he tried to find his way out of the city? It seems plausible enough.”  _ It’s also likely, if you think about it…I don’t think he would’ve stayed in one single spot after something like that. _

She stayed quiet for a moment, thinking. “That would make sense, yeah. But where would he go?”

After another bout of silence, Wren could hear talon steps drawing near.  _ That can't be Sky, obviously…why would another dragon approach us? _ She leaned in closer onto Sky's neck, while taking hold of Ivy's hand and lightly squeezing it. Ivy blushed upon noticing, but said nothing. As she turned around, she noticed an odd-looking desert dragon walking over to them, a confused look on her face.  _ Could she be the dragon Ivy and Leaf are looking for? …No, probably not. Ivy said the dragon was more of a golden colour. _

That didn't change the fact that Wren still thought she looked rather odd, however. The new arrival had mostly sandy, light brown scales, with dark brown scales topping them on her face, back, and tail. In between the dark brown and sandy scales was a light orange, similar to the colour of a mountain dragon's scales. Her underbelly and wings were a pale salmon pink, and her frill was a light yellowish-brown. The dragon's eyes matched a typical desert dragon's - though her tail didn't, as it had no barb.

Wren glanced briefly at Ivy. “I can assume that she isn't the golden dragon you mentioned, right?”

Ivy almost let out a snort of laughter. “I would hope not.” She looked more serious for a moment. “What does she want with us? I don't think she saw us…”

Shrugging, Wren craned her neck to get a better glimpse. “We'll see.”

The dragon tilted her head. “Hello there,” She greeted. “I'm Gnatcatcher. Are you looking for something? I noticed you were just hanging around here, and well…that looks pretty suspicious.”

Sky frowned. “I…yes. I'm looking for a human-”

“ _ Scavenger _ ,” Wren reminded him, her voice a hushed whisper.

“Scavenger, I mean,” He corrected himself. “Have you seen him?”

Gnatcatcher was silent for a moment - Wren had to guess she caught onto his slip up.  _ Oh well, I suppose. As long as she didn't hear me, I guess. _ Ivy gently tapped Wren's shoulder, a questioning look on her face.

“What's she saying?”

Wren grimaced. “She's just asking what we were doing, and is trying to think if she saw Leaf anywhere.”

Ivy exhaled softly. “That's something at least, but…are you sure she'll be able to tell it's Leaf specifically? Compared to dragons, we're-”

“Miniature? Yes, I know.” Wren wanted to apologise to Ivy for her brisk tone upon seeing her face, but her attention was grabbed by Gnatcatcher.

Gnatcatcher grimaced. “Well, I’m not sure if it’s the scavenger you’re looking for, but I did come across one while I was minding the antique shop. Perhaps I might have found it?”

Wren had a plethora of problems with Gnatcatcher using the term ‘it’ in regards to humans, especially Leaf, but she knew it was best to just leave it alone.  _ I don’t want to ruin our only chance to find Leaf - even if I really, really want to snap at her for saying that… _

“Really? Can w- I see, please?” Sky asked - Wren could tell he was hoping that Gnatcatcher had missed his second slip up, and she was too.  _ Just how obvious is it that we aren’t used to this sort of thing? _

Gnatcatcher nodded, gesturing for him to walk by her side. Wren remained on Sky’s back, still unsure of this whole idea.  _ Better than nothing, I suppose. _ She glanced at Ivy, who seemed more focused on the newcomer if anything. Wren had to guess it was because of her odd appearance - the dusty orange scales and dark brown scales looked strange, on a desert dragon at least.  _ Or maybe it’s just because Ivy hasn’t seen many dragons up close before. _ Upon taking another look at the wide-eyed expression on Ivy’s face, Wren smothered a giggle.  _ Probably both. _

After some silence, Gnatcatcher spoke up. “So…the scavenger you’re looking for is your pet, I’m guessing?”

Sky frowned - he was unsure how to answer, and Wren couldn’t exactly blame him, either. “Well, um-” Before he could finish, Gnatcatcher’s attention was elsewhere - namely, on Wren and Ivy.

“Oh! I didn’t notice you had two others. So are they as well?” She asked. Wren wanted to scream. No, she was  _ not _ a pet and any time she said anything about it with Sky, it was strictly a  _ joke _ . And it made no sense to her, either - how would a pet be able to raise a baby dragon?  _ They wouldn’t, that’s how! _

Ivy took her hand out of Wren’s own, placing it on Wren’s shoulder. She grimaced. “Wren, I don’t know what’s going on since you aren’t translating anything for me, but it looks like you want to shout at her or even stab her, so I’d like to ask if you could…avoid doing any of that? Please?”

Wren huffed, crossing her arms. “ _ Fine _ . But that doesn’t mean I won’t be any less annoyed with being called a pet in an obviously non-joking manner. I mean, seriously! I look nothing like a pet!” Ivy only let out a quiet, mildly sympathetic laugh, gently rubbing Wren’s shoulder.

“Uh…technically, yes?”

Gnatcatcher hummed to herself, her attention back on the streets. “That sounds like a lot of work. Taking care of scavengers, I mean.”

“I suppose so,” Sky replied, still sounding awkward. “I don’t think it’s that hard though. The three I’m travelling with are pretty good at taking care of themselves, I think.”

Shrugging, Gnatcatcher’s expression remained indifferent. “That would make sense, I guess. It would be odd if there was a dragon taking care of all the scavengers living in those dens I’ve seen on my work trips. Most dragons I’ve seen would eat them without a second thought.”

Before Sky could ask more about that, Gnatcatcher turned to one of the huts on a less busy street - it was rather small, and seemed like it hadn’t had a dragon living in it for years prior to Gnatcatcher’s arrival. It was made of dried mud bricks, though Wren wasn’t sure how long that would last. It seemed like Gnatcatcher had moved into it recently and didn’t have that many options, as Wren felt certain that there would be better places in the city to live than a small, crumbling hut.

“This is where I put the scavenger, since I didn’t want it to accidentally suffocate in my pouch.” She sighed as she opened the door. “Apologies for the inside. I haven’t gotten much time to properly clean up since moving in, and my job has kept me a bit preoccupied at the moment.”

“I don’t think it looks bad,” Sky assured her after walking in. The inside was a little cramped and cluttered, but Wren didn’t think it looked too bad.  _ She probably cleaned up a bit when she placed Leaf here. Or whoever it is she found. _

Gnatcatcher shrugged once again. “Thanks, I suppose.” She looked around the room for a bit, her eyes narrowed. Looking at the ground, she gestured to the legs of a small table that had seen better days. “The scavenger should be hiding there. I’m guessing it didn’t particularly like the table.”

Soon enough, Leaf had appeared from behind one of the table’s legs - his expression of fear had quickly morphed into one of pure relief.  _ Oh, thank the moons he’s alright- _ Sky also seemed similarly relieved, sighing deeply. Ivy said nothing, though Wren could tell Ivy was glad Leaf was alright. Leaf rushed over to them, letting Sky place him on his back, albeit being slightly wary.

Ivy smiled, hugging him. “You’re okay!”

Leaf chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, sorry if I made you guys worry.”

“Of course you made us worry!” Wren snapped, also embracing him. She drew back, exhaling softly. “Did you mean to fall off of Sky’s back? We lost you in the crowd and couldn’t find you.”

He crossed his arms. “I…didn’t mean to fall. I guess the height just…” He looked away, frowning.  _ Is he afraid of heights? Is that what caused this? Or was it a mixture of that and something else? _ Wren wanted to ask, but it was clear he wasn’t going to answer.

Sky smiled at Gnatcatcher. “Thank you for helping! I’m not sure we would’ve found him without your help.” He tilted his head slightly. “Though I have to ask…why didn’t you eat him when you found him?”  _ I hate to admit it, but…I was wondering that, too… _

“I don’t really think much of scavengers, but I don’t eat them since my father was interested in studying them after the war ended since there was the whole…you know, them killing the SandWing queen thing,” She explained, looking vaguely upset. “I didn’t want to get in the way of that, so I didn’t eat them. Even though I’m not sure where he is now or if he’s even alive, it still feels like I’m respecting his wishes by not eating any, so I don’t.”

“Oh. I’m sorry about your dad,” Sky said after she finished.

Gnatcatcher shrugged once more. “It’s fine. I’m sure he’s alive, wherever he is.” As they began to leave Gnatcatcher’s hut, she took one last glance at Leaf, then back at Sky. “Have safe travels. I do recommend keeping a closer eye on the one you were looking for, though. He really doesn’t seem to do well when he’s up too high.”

Sky gave her one last nod, leaving the hut. Wren cast one last glance at Leaf as they made their way out of the city, frowning. He was sitting next to Ivy, leaning onto her slightly.  _ He’s clearly not okay. _

**…**

It had been a few hours since they had left the dragon city, or Possibility, as it was called. They had made decent progress, even if they were just walking - they had made it across most of the river, which took longer than expected. Looking back, it seemed like the city also happened to be the same one Sky had gotten taken in, which didn’t help Wren like Possibility any more. She guessed it was due to the size of how big the city was - she wasn’t going to admit that she had thought wrong, though.

Wren was resting on Sky’s back, while Leaf and Ivy walked alongside him at a relatively even pace. Ivy hadn’t left Leaf’s side since leaving the city, and Wren couldn’t fault her for it - Wren was also pretty concerned about him.

Ivy grimaced. “Are you sure? You really don’t look like you’re okay.”

He sighed. “I’ll get over it.”

“So…no, you aren’t okay. Is there anything I can do to help, or…?”

“I said I’ll get over it,” He repeated, sounding more irritated. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it any more, alright?”

Ivy looked away from him, her shoulders slumping. “I…alright, then.”

_ Is his fear of heights really that bad? _ Wren wasn’t particularly inclined to mind much, since she had her suspicions that he didn’t like heights, especially after his near-death experience with Cereus.  _ I can’t blame him for it, but…I don’t think it’d hurt for him to just admit that it makes him uncomfortable, either. _ She was mildly frustrated since this made flying somewhat harder than before, but she and Sky could probably figure something out.  _ Probably. _

Soon they had come to a stop at a decently sized oasis - the sun was already beginning to set and they all were growing tired from the amount of walking. Wren climbed off of Sky’s back, yawning a little once reaching the ground.

Leaf gently placed his sword on the ground, grimacing. “I’m going fishing.” Without waiting for a reply, he took off.  _ Yeesh. _

“Hey, um…Wren?” Ivy mumbled. Wren turned to her, raising an eyebrow. “I know you offered to teach me Dragon, but I think I’m going to go fishing with Leaf. I’m still worried and I kind of…need to talk to him.”

Wren shrugged. “It’s fine. I figured you two need the alone time, anyways.”

Ivy scoffed, rolling her eyes as she headed off in Leaf’s direction.  _ What did I- oh. _ Wren groaned upon realising.  _ Did she seriously think I was joking about her and Leaf again? I need to clarify that to her… _

There wasn’t much Wren could do about it at the moment, though. She glanced up at Sky, sighing. “Wanna see if those date palms are edible? I need help grabbing them, anyways.”

“Sure!” Sky responded with a nod. Wren followed him over to one of the palm trees, folding her arms.  _ I can’t believe today happened. _


	12. Chapter 12

**IVY**

“Gah!” Leaf wiped off the water splashed in his face with his shoulder’s sleeve - Ivy thought it was impractical, but she wasn’t going to say that out loud. _It’s…not even that much water._

Leaf had insisted on fishing by hand, despite Ivy’s protests that it’d probably be better if they tried to use a spear. He was confident that he didn’t need to use anything else but his bare hands, and while Ivy had several doubts that it’d be efficient, she _did_ find it vaguely amusing to watch.

Ivy let out a few laughs by accident. “Catch anything yet?”

He looked up at her and scowled - though he burst into a few chuckles upon seeing Ivy’s face. “No.”

“Do you want any help?” She asked once she managed to stop laughing.

Leaf shook his head, glancing back at the pool. “Nah, I don’t think I need it. And I don’t think you know how to fish, if I’m being honest.”

Huffing, Ivy crossed her arms. “You aren’t wrong, but I could be a great help if you taught me!”

His gaze went wide for a few moments. “Is that…something you want me to teach you? Because I mean, if you want me to, I can.”

“Sure! It’d probably be a big help since we’re probably going to find more sources of water like this.” _And I really don’t want to be a dead weight…I want to be useful, too._

After a brief moment of silence, Leaf nodded. “Alright, I can do that. Just…not here. It isn’t exactly ideal to teach you how to fish in an oasis.” _That makes sense, I guess. I wish he’d just teach me now, though…_

Ivy leaned back, her hands scratching against the coarse sand. “Alright. But I’m half-convinced that you’re just saying that because you don’t want my help,” She joked.

Leaf smirked, nudging her shoulder. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”

Slightly off balance, she shoved Leaf back, laughing. Leaf yelped as he fell forwards, tumbling into the water. Ivy let out a barely audible gasp. _Oh moons no, I just pushed him into the water, crap-_ He waded around in the water for a bit, catching his breath.

“Leaf, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!”

Shrugging, Leaf stretched a bit. “It’s fine. This isn’t that deep, anyways. I wouldn’t drown that easily, if at all.”

Ivy sighed. “Still though.” She watched as he drifted around in the water for a bit. “So you know how to swim, too?”

He grinned. “Yep! This isn’t really much compared to swimming against a river current, though. It’s pretty relaxing, honestly.”

_He’s probably just saying it casually,_ She reminded herself. _But part of me keeps thinking that he’s just saying it to impress me. It’s stupid to think about, but…_ Ivy groaned inwardly. She hated when she thought like that. It was confusing to think about, especially since she hadn’t given it any thought at all until Daffodil teased her about her relationship with Leaf - and Wren, for that matter, but Ivy tried her best to ignore those remarks from Wren and forget about them. _Why did things have to get so confusing?_

Leaf splashed some water onto her legs to get her attention. “Ivy? You alright?”

“Hmm? Oh,” She mumbled, glancing back at him. “I was just…thinking.”

“…Did you want to talk about it? If you want to, that is.”

Ivy sat up, grimacing. “I guess so. We kind of need to talk about it, anyways.”

Leaf frowned, exhaling deeply. “It’s about our relationship, isn’t it?”

Hesitantly, Ivy nodded. “Yeah.” She tucked into her legs, resting her chin on her arms. “I’ve just been really confused. Ever since Daffodil teased me about you, I just…really didn’t know what to think? I mean, I don’t mind it but I never really thought much about romance, especially with the whole thing with my dad…and I never noticed anyone being interested in me, though I’m probably just…really oblivious to it.”

Taking a moment to think, Leaf placed his arms on the shore. “I get that. I really like hanging out with you, and I never thought about us like that until Daffodil mentioned that. And Wren teasing me about it, too, I suppose…the kiss didn’t help much, either. It’s all really confusing.”

“I’m sorry! I meant for it to be on the cheek, but-” She stopped herself, laughing awkwardly. “Well, it’s over with. For what it’s worth, it wasn't half bad. Your breath kind of smells, though.”

“My breath does _not_ smell,” He snapped. “But thanks, I guess?”

Ivy giggled softly. “You’re welcome.” _And it really does, but…that’s not a debate I want to get into._ “So…do you want to settle on being just friends, maybe?”

He gave her a small smile. “Of course. I’m just glad I get to talk to you in the first place.”

Ivy almost let out a breath of relief. _Well, at least that’s settled. For the most part, anyways._ Leaf remained in the water, still searching for fish. _He’s still trying? That’s both impressive and ridiculous, honestly._

“So…could you teach me how to swim?”

Leaf smirked. “ _Suuure_.” _That’s…definitely not suspicious at all._

Before Ivy could react, Leaf grabbed onto her, dragging her into the water. She let out a shriek, flailing as she struggled to stand. While she flailed around, she could’ve sworn she had hit Leaf on accident at least once. Even if she did, she didn't find it in her to care.

She glared at Leaf once she retained her balance. “I hate you!” She snapped, shoving him as hard as she could.

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let that opportunity just go to waste!” Leaf managed to say once Ivy stopped splashing him with water.

Ivy crossed her arms. “What was that even _for_?”

Leaf began laughing. “Think of it as revenge.”

“Because I pushed you into the water on accident, or because I called your breath gross?”

“Either works.”

Laughing, she shoved him again, albeit lighter. “Well, if I’m going to be stuck in the water with you, then you might as well teach me how to fish.”

He shrugged, grinning. “I can do that.”

…

Wren came rushing to them once she noticed Ivy and Leaf. She burst into laughter upon getting a better look.

“What _happened_ to you two?”

Leaf cast a smug grin in Ivy's direction. “I got sweet revenge.”

Ivy rolled her eyes at him, then turned to Wren. “He was just upset that I called his breath smelly, even though it is!”

Wren didn't bother hiding her amusement. “To be fair, Leaf…I’d trust Ivy’s word over yours in this case.”

He scoffed. “Neither of you would know bad breath even if it hit you in the face.” _Oh, it has, Leaf. It has._

“Anyways…how did the fishing go?” Wren asked, though she was still holding back a few giggles.

Leaf gestured to the fish in his hands - they were wrapped in a fallen palm leaf, as neither Ivy or Leaf had wanted to touch the fish themselves. Inside was only a few fish, but enough for everyone, excluding Sky - Ivy had guessed Wren and Sky were gathering something else for him regardless. Wren took the fish, humming quietly to herself.

Leaf grimaced slightly. “…Is that enough?”

Wren nodded. “Should be. Sky and I were getting some date palms while you two were busy fishing, so we won’t be having just fish.”

“Oooh, I’ve never had those before,” Ivy said, her body tingling with excitement. “I wonder what they taste like?”

Leaf shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had them, either.”

Ivy took his hands in her own. “Then we can find out together!”

He smiled at her briefly, then glanced back at Wren. “I can go collect some firewood. I can say that eating raw fish is…not a good idea, speaking from personal experience.”

“I’m sorry, but what do you mean by ‘personal experience’-” Wren began, though Leaf had already taken off. She sighed, glancing at Ivy. “I have several concerns.”

“I do too,” Ivy muttered. She looked over at the small clearing Wren had made - if Ivy was recalling correctly, there had been a decent amount of fallen leaves on the ground. “Oh, so that’s where we’re sleeping?”

Wren nodded, looking vaguely proud. “Yeah, though it isn’t the best place, probably. I only felt like moving a few things.”

Ivy smiled warmly at her. “Well, I still think it looks nice!”

Her cheeks flushing, Wren awkwardly returned the smile. “If you say so.”

“…Are you sure that the dates are entirely edible?” Ivy asked after an awkward period of silence.

Shrugging, Wren seemed indifferent. “Eh. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” _That…is a terrible plan._ “Hey, it’s a decent idea compared to what else I came up with. And besides…we still have those blueberries from earlier!”

_For her sake, I’m not going to mention that I’m also hoping those haven’t gone bad, either. I mean, they’ve been sitting in that bag of yours all day…mostly in the desert sun, no less._

“Is there anything else we need to do? It looks like we have almost everything covered.”

Wren was quiet for a moment. “Nope, I don’t think so. You can help me get started on the fire once Leaf comes back, if you really want.”

Ivy raised an eyebrow, tilting her head slightly. “I’ve never tried setting a fire, but…I’d want to try, I think!”

“I’ll try to make sure you don’t burn yourself, then. And I’m sure Leaf and Sky will help, too.” Wren glanced back at the clearing, stretching a bit as she began to make her way towards it. “I’m going to rest for a bit in the meanwhile. My everything is tired.”

_I can’t blame her for that,_ She thought. _It has been a pretty exhausting day. Come to think of it, I’m pretty tired myself…_ Ivy followed after Wren, sitting down next to her. Wren had placed her own sword next to Leaf’s, which had surprised Ivy to some extent - she thought Wren would keep it on her at all times. _I guess she wasn’t exactly worried this time around._ She frowned slightly at the swords. _I wish I had something to defend myself with. And it just makes me feel…useless, not having anything to help out with, in case anything happens. Wren and Leaf have their swords, Sky is…well, a dragon regardless of whether he has fire or not. Me?_

_Nothing. Absolutely nothing._

Ivy didn’t particularly like dwelling on that, however. She knew too well that dwelling on the negatives of her life just made her feel more miserable, and she didn’t want to burden others with her problems, especially when she felt her problems were ridiculous to complain about. _Not to mention, feeling miserable is one of my least favourite things in all of Pyrrhia._

She instead focused on the sunset - various blues were melting into the orange glow the sun gave off, which shone brightly in Ivy’s eyes. She didn’t mind it, though - it wasn’t as harsh as it was earlier, and it still was a wonderful mixture of colours, in Ivy’s opinion. _I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on something like this for most of my life._

“The sunset’s so pretty,” She murmured to herself. “I’ve never gotten to see one like this, even back in the ruins.”

Wren’s light laughter grabbed Ivy’s attention. “You…really have been sheltered from most of the surface, huh?”

Nodding, Ivy let her hands glide through the sand. “Yeah. I had to imagine everything until I was eight, I think. And even then, I think I got really lucky that Foxglove was willing to take me outside of Valor at that age.”

“I couldn’t imagine living like that,” Wren admitted after some silence. Sky, who had been listening in on their conversation, nodded. “It’s been mostly Sky and I, but even before that, I knew some things about the outside. Well, especially since I live on the surface and not underground, but you know what I mean.”

Ivy shrugged. “I guess that was another thing my dad indirectly took from me.” After thinking her words over, she added, “I don’t really mind, though. I still got the chance to become a Wingwatcher, and I’ve gotten better at handling all the stuff outside. But sometimes things like the wind and sunlight can still be overwhelming for me, I guess.”

Wren had a frown on her face for a while, then suddenly perked up. “Oh! I have an idea - maybe after we find that golden dragon, you could keep travelling with us? I’m sure there’s places even we haven’t been to yet.”

“You’re serious? Of course, I’d love to keep travelling with you guys!”

The smile on Wren’s face simply grew wider. “Aww, thanks. I promise I’ll try to take you to all the places on Pyrrhia - or at least, all the ones I can.”

Ivy beamed, hugging Wren. “No, thank you! This is amazing!”

Foot steps could be heard nearing them as they continued talking. Ivy turned to see Leaf walking towards them, a bundle of tree bark in his hands. He set them down in front of him, sitting down.

“Did I miss anything, or…?”

“Wren just promised she’d let me keep travelling with her and Sky even after we find the golden dragon!” She exclaimed, her heart racing. _I can’t believe she actually suggested that!_ “I can’t wait to see all of Pyrrhia!”

Leaf smiled. “I’m glad you have something in mind while we search for the golden dragon, then.”

_What does that mean?_ “Is there something you had in mind, Leaf?” She eventually asked, unsure how to word her question.

He shrugged, now laying on the ground. “I’m just unsure about what I want to do after this, I guess. Or how to do it.” Letting out a sigh, he shut his eyes. “Don’t worry about me, though. I’m probably going to have something in mind once this is over.”

_That just makes me worry more!_ Ivy didn’t bother with arguing - Leaf didn’t seem to be in the mood for it, and neither was Ivy herself. _And I want to believe he’ll figure something out by the time we find her._ She instead curled up into a position where she could rest her head on Wren’s shoulder, exhaling softly. Her gaze remained on the sunset.

_Even though things are stressful right now, the world always looks so beautiful. I wish I was able to look at the sunset like this all the time…maybe that would’ve been more soothing to watch after mom and dad’s fights instead of imagining it? Or maybe the winds would distract me more from dad’s anger when it’s too much to handle?_

_…I wish dad didn’t try to steal that treasure. And I wish that the dragon attack never happened. I really wish I didn’t have to live in hiding like that because of him, and have to miss so many amazing things like this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are wondering why i finished this early it's because i have had this scene in my head for _weeks_
> 
> also sort of apologising in advance for the fact that the next two chapters are also sort of filler like this one (fourteen less so for various reasons as it's Forest's POV but it's still sort of filler ig)


	13. Chapter 13

**ROWAN**

Night was starting to fall by the time Grove was almost finished with the shelter. Tadpole, Cranberry, and Mallow had been helping him on and off for most of the day - the others had brought more supplies when they had ran out, which was more often than Rowan would’ve liked to admit. Rowan was sitting by the fire Camellia had started (it was one of Camellia’s few good ideas, according to Bluebell). She was cold, though the warmth of Bluebell and Thyme sitting next to her somewhat made up for that.

Bluebell groaned quietly. “It’s going to take forever for us to finish all these shelters.”

Thyme shrugged, albeit barely. “We’ll finish them eventually.”

“I’d rather have them take a while than rush them, anyways,” Rowan added. “It’ll be safer in the long run.”

“I guess so, but…I also don’t want to suffer in the rain,” Bluebell muttered, digging her face further into her arms.

Sighing, Thyme nodded weakly. “I get that. Though it’s not the worst thing that would happen to me, so I wouldn’t mind.”

_ Oh, _ Rowan thought once she realised what he meant.  _ He’s still upset about Mushroom. _ Rowan was more bitter over Mushroom’s betrayal if anything, but she could tell Thyme was taking it the worst out of her, Cranberry, and Grove. She gently brushed his arm with her elbow - his gaze briefly flickered to her, something resembling a smile forming on his face.  _ At least he knows I’m still here for him. _

Camellia seemed to notice their silent exchange, but said nothing about it.  _ Odd, considering this is Camellia. _ Rowan could tell she looked…semi-confused, at most.  _ She does seem to be expressing something that isn’t anger towards someone, though. I guess everyone has to start somewhere. _

She crossed her arms upon realising Rowan was observing her. “Well, if it  _ does _ end up raining, most of us will end up being sick. I don’t know if any of you could tell, but I hate being sick. I’m never doing  _ that _ again.”  _ Is she…trying to act like this because she dislikes me, or…? No, that can’t be it. She’s typically like this towards everyone except those she knows will probably hurt her if she acts like that. _

Bluebell lifted her head just to roll her eyes at Camellia. “If it bugs you so much, then why don’t you help out? It’s not like there’s anything stopping you.”

“In case you didn’t notice, I’m  _ trying _ to keep this fire going!” Camellia snapped back.

“…Literally anyone can do that,” Bluebell retorted with a shrug.

Camellia narrowed her eyes at her. “And anyone can help out with the shelter.”

Rowan inhaled sharply. “Camellia, remind me how old you are?”

“She’s twenty-one,” Bluebell cut in before Camellia could get a word in. She glanced back at Camellia, then back at Rowan. “I feel like I should clarify that I mean twenty-one as in years old, and not twenty-one months old.”

“Both of you can zip it!” Camellia hissed.

Before Bluebell could reply, Grove walked over to the fire, clearing his throat.  _ Thank the moons for that… _

“I’m finished with most of the shelter,” He breathed, rubbing his forehead. “But right now I’m exhausted and need a break. Can one of you take over for a little bit, at the very least? I’d really appreciate it.”

Thyme cast an irked glare at Camellia before turning to Grove. “I can take over.”

Grove grimaced. “You sure? I don’t mind if you want to, but…I don’t want you overworking yourself.”

He got to his feet regardless, waving off Grove’s concerns. “I’ll be fine. Besides, it’ll probably take my mind off of Mushroom.”

Rowan couldn’t help but feel a twinge of anger.  _ I still don’t understand how he could feel so awful about it. Mushroom was never that good of a brother to him, or a friend, even. _ She frowned, exhaling quietly.  _ Well, I’m the one to speak. I’m probably the worst older sister in Pyrrhia. _ Still, even if she had to remind herself that Thyme considered himself close to Mushroom, even though it was…obvious that Mushroom hated him.  _ Maybe he’s just wishing that things between them had been differently. _

_ I can’t blame him for that. It isn’t like I haven’t felt the same towards any of my siblings before…especially with Wren. _

Camellia eyed him warily. “Are you going to finish it properly?”

_ Did she not hear the part where he said he wants to take his mind off of his brother? The gall she has sometimes… _ Camellia’s question went unanswered, however - Thyme simply resumed working on the shelter where Grove had left off, not saying a single word. Rowan could hear Bluebell just barely holding her laughter - she couldn’t blame Bluebell for it, though she was still annoyed with Camellia. Camellia seemed to overhear as well, shooting daggers in Bluebell’s direction before marching over to the incomplete shelter.

Cranberry turned to her in a deliberately bored manner. “What does Her Majesty need now?”

“I’m making sure this shelter is built properly,” Camellia snapped - Rowan was more surprised Camellia didn’t lose it over Cranberry’s snide remark. “So you can go spend time with your boyfriend and girlfriend or whatever, because I’m doing so whether you like it or not.”

Blushing, Cranberry just gave Camellia an odd look before sitting down next to Rowan, sighing. Grove seemed more amused if anything.

“What does that even mean?” Rowan mumbled. The first response she got was a disbelieving stare from Bluebell.

“I- you’re serious? She’s talking about you and Grove!”

Rowan’s cheeks immediately began to heat up. “No one ever said we were dating!”

Bluebell huffed. “You might as well be dating already, considering how obvious you three are!”

Cranberry crossed her arms. “We are not obvious!”

“To be fair, we kind of are,” Grove added, shrugging. Cranberry threw a clump of grass at him - he only chuckled at her as the grass landed right next to his feet.

She scoffed. “If we were obvious, then I’d be flirting with you and Rowan constantly!”

Bluebell snorted, her hands on her mouth. “Implying you don’t do that already?”

Glaring at her for a moment, Cranberry turned to Rowan. “Rowan, how often would you say I flirt with you?”

“Uhh…”  _ How well would “I really did not pick up on any of this from you or Grove at all” work as an answer? _

Grove sat on the ground, shaking his head slightly. “Cran, don’t pressure her.”

Cranberry opened her mouth to argue, but sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Sorry Rowan.” She glanced back at Rowan. “But would you mind if I flirted with you more often?”

Rowan’s face felt hot. “No! I just- can we not talk about this in front of Bluebell?”  _ Or Camellia, Mallow, Thyme…literally everyone but us? _

“What did I do?” Bluebell whined, pouting.

“You’re  _ embarrassing _ ,” Rowan groaned.

Bluebell mocked offense. “And Camellia  _ isn’t _ ?” Camellia only shot Bluebell a dirty look - Rowan guessed that having Camellia work on the shelter was beneficial in more ways than one.  _ That actually got her to shut up. Maybe we should have her work on more stuff in the future… _

Rowan raised an eyebrow, smirking. “I never said she wasn’t.”

Bluebell shoved Rowan, giggling. “You are just the worst!”

Stumbling onto Cranberry a bit, Rowan let out a few laughs. Cranberry was also amused, pushing Bluebell back. Still laughing, Bluebell fell onto her back, looking up at the sky. Rowan remained laying down on Cranberry’s lap, sighing to herself. Grove moved closer to them, wrapping an arm around Cranberry's shoulder.  _ They actually seem to like me in that way, despite everything…why? _

She didn’t want to focus on it much, however - she didn’t want to ruin the moment with her negativity. Soon Mallow and Camellia came back, warming up by the fire. Rowan couldn’t see much, but she had to assume Mallow had several splinters in her hands, judging by the grumbling she did. Camellia barely mustered a scowl, instead choosing to help with the splinters.  _ Compassion from Camellia? Normally I’d laugh, but…it is Mallow she’s dealing with. _

For the longest time, Camellia and Mallow typically spent their time together - despite Camellia’s attitude. Rowan always found it odd, but at least there was someone Camellia thought was worthy of her time outside of herself.  _ I wish I had taken the time to actually spend time with either of them…even though Camellia is, well…Camellia. _

“Hey, kid? I appreciate the help, but you can take a break. You’ve been working nonstop all day.” It was Thyme. Rowan tilted her head slightly to see.

Tadpole grimaced. “I want to keep working, though. If I don't, then it’ll just prove that I’m something I’m not.”

Thyme placed a hand on Tadpole's shoulder. “Hey, don’t let Camellia get to you, alright? I’m glad you’re trying to prove that you’re trustworthy, but don’t pass out in the process.”

“I…why do you care?” Tadpole didn’t seem frustrated, though the tone of his voice seemed to say otherwise.

Nudging Tadpole in the direction of the fire, Thyme didn't meet his gaze. “Get some rest.”

Tadpole looked like he wanted to argue, but didn't bother. He glanced around the fire - Camellia gave him a hostile glare. Instead he sat next to Bluebell, who offered to let him sit nearby.

Cranberry rubbed her eyes, yawning softly. “We should probably make sleeping plans.”

Mallow inhaled sharply as Camellia managed to pull a splinter out of her hand. “Yeah, that seems like a good idea.”

“We only have one shelter,” Camellia grumbled.  _ Wow, Camellia, thanks for the reminder. _ “And it looks like it can fit three people  _ at best _ .”

Bluebell snickered quietly. “Surprised she didn’t claim it for herself.”

Camellia glowered her. “I have these things called  _ standards _ . Perhaps you haven't heard of them, but I have several!”

Cranberry rolled her eyes. “Camellia, you’re welcome to sleep in the mud if you can’t handle a shelter.”

“Yeah, Camellia!” Bluebell added, a smug grin on her face. “You could make your own mud hut so you don’t have to deal with undignified people like ourselves, as you’d say.”

"Absolutely not! I’d choke on it!"  _ She does realise that saying that kind of implies she’d be eating mud, right…? _ Rowan struggled to avoid bursting into laughter at the image.

Grove pursed his lips. “Okay, I think we got it. No mud.” He glanced back at Cranberry. “I think the youngest should sleep in the shelter. They need the sleep the most, probably.”

Camellia threw her arms up in the air, causing Mallow to yelp. “I need sleep, too!”

Rowan frowned. “But you…just said that you didn’t want to sleep in the shelter.” She was still trying her best not to laugh at Camellia, but failing miserably - or at least, that’s what the scowl on Camellia’s face told her.

“Camellia, in her defense, you  _ did _ say you have standards,” Mallow reminded her, smiling nervously.

“And no one said that you  _ wouldn’t _ get sleep,” Bluebell coughed.

Cranberry let out an exasperated sigh. “Regardless of what Camellia thinks, I think Grove’s suggestion is a good one for now. And besides, some of us are already used to sleeping out in the wilderness. We’ll be building more, so it isn’t like we’ll be living like this forever.” She hardly glanced in Bluebell and Tadpole’s direction. “I’d assume you two are the youngest.”

Bluebell gave her a disgruntled stare. “Yes, I’m probably one of the youngest out of all of us.” She sat up, lightly nudging Tadpole’s shoulder. “Hey, how old are you?”

“F-Fifteen,” He stammered.

Bluebell threw her fist into the air. “So I’m not the youngest after all? Yes!” She turned back to him, a sympathetic expression on her face. “Sorry, Tadpole.”

_ He really is around Leaf’s age, _ Rowan thought.  _ And he…managed to stomach working for the dragonmancers like that. Even though he doesn’t look like it, he stomached arresting Grove. _ If things had been different, would Leaf have ended up like Tadpole? Rowan shrugged off the thought.  _ I…it won’t do me any good thinking about that right now. _

Exhaling softly, Cranberry glanced down at Rowan. “Are you going to sleep like that, Rowan?”

Rowan looked up at her, barely moving an inch. “Maybe.”

Gently rustling her hair, Cranberry huffed. “But how will I go to sleep?”

“You won’t.” Rowan stuck her tongue out at her, giggling quietly.

Cranberry chortled. “How evil of you.”

As she curled up against Cranberry even more, Rowan let out a soft sigh, smiling.  _ This…isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, _ She thought as she shut her eyes.  _ Maybe this will be possible after all, even though I’ve messed up enough things already. _


	14. Chapter 14

**FOREST**

“Remind me again, what's the purpose of this?”

“I told you already, Forest! I'm not repeating the obvious to you.”

Forest groaned as Violet continued searching the cave - or more accurately, his mom’s office. She had been insistent on seeing the office upon realising Brook had already left for the patrol. ‘I want to see if there’s anything relating to the banished Wingwatchers,’ She had told him. ‘And maybe Heath.’ He wasn’t sure why she was so interested in investigating the latter, especially since the whole thing with Heath was mostly over. _Why did I let Daffodil talk me into letting her come over as well?_

Since Brook had been out for most of the day, Forest had their whole cave to himself. It typically happened whenever Brook had to run a job outside of the tunnels, or had any sort of meeting. He didn’t mind it much, but he did find it annoying when she had to leave constantly for her Wingwatcher duties. _I enjoy spending time with her a lot, especially outside of our jobs…I wish she’d realise that._

Daffodil walked up to him, laughing awkwardly. “Sorry about her, Forest. She’s still kind of grumpy about missing the patrol.” She suddenly frowned, huffing quietly. “And to be honest, so am I.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You really think that you could’ve snuck outside of the caves without anyone noticing?”

“Well, duh! And even if I couldn’t for some ridiculous reason, I practically helped save Valor! There’s no reason I _shouldn’t_ be allowed to go along with,” Daffodil argued, waving a hand at him. She glanced back at Violet. “But I have to admit, I’m not really sure why we need to keep looking into this? Heath’s not the lord of Valor any more, and Brook’s planning on bringing the banished back.”

 _Yeah…my mom- Brook’s the lord of Valor now._ He still found it weird to consider her that - he was always used to calling her the Wingwatcher commander, as he could vividly remember her being heavily invested in her job, even when he was especially young. _Maybe I’m still used to calling Heath the lord of Valor, but…_ He shrugged it off. _I’ll probably get used to it. Eventually._

Violet grimaced. “I’m curious to see if there’s anything more on the banished. Especially the ones who we don’t really know why they got banished in the first place.”

Daffodil’s expression didn’t change one bit. “It’s…Ivy’s dad. Do we really need to find out why everyone got banished? He was obviously paranoid.” She crossed her arms, looking away. “And besides, I don’t think this is even a smart idea.”

 _That’s what I said!_ Forest thought indignantly. If Forest was being honest, the only reason he had allowed Violet to poke around was because he was certain that she would’ve blackmailed him if he told her otherwise. Or at least, that’s what Daffodil had implied she’d do. _Even if she wouldn’t do that to me, I still get the feeling she would…_

“Then leave if you want to. We don’t know how long it’ll be until Brook has another longer outside mission, so I’m taking the chance while it’s still available,” Violet retorted, looking away from Daffodil. “Besides, I’m curious. I just want to see something.”

“I’m not leaving you alone in my mom’s office, Violet!”

The look on Violet’s face told Forest everything he needed to know. _I’m going to die-_ He indirectly leaned into Daffodil, his heart racing. Daffodil glanced at him, vaguely amused. _Daffodil! How is my impending_ death _funny?_

She sighed, turning back to Violet. “Okay, that’s fine. Can you just…please spend some time with us? You’re also our friend.” _Is she really my friend, though? I don’t think she likes me…and to be honest, if she’s going to be like that, then I don’t like her much, either._

_But for Daffodil’s sake, I’ll try to get along with her…_

Thinking on it, Violet gave in, nodding. “Fine.”

Daffodil grinned, already rushing off. “I’ll go tell Moth!”

Forest couldn’t hold back a smile. _Despite everything, she’s always so full of energy. I wish I could be like that._ He tensed up upon hearing Violet’s foot steps. She had one of Brook’s files in her hands, and her expression was difficult for him to read. _How does Daffodil even understand her? She’s so confusing…_

“Is that-”

“None of your business? Absolutely,” She replied, not stopping to glance at him. “I plan on returning it before I leave, so don’t fret.”

Violet walked past him, headed in Daffodil’s direction. Forest grimaced, though he remained silent as he followed her. _I still think it’s a really bad idea to go digging through my mom’s stuff, even if we put it back like it was. We’re probably going to miss something and she’s going to notice-_ He swallowed it down, trying to take in deep breaths. _Not like Violet is going to budge on that. So I did what I could, right?_

_…No, and everyone knows it._

Moth and Daffodil were in a larger room of the cave, sitting down on a few cushions. Brook had gotten them when Forest was fairly young - though a few were there before Forest was born. The untouched one was for Forest - his favourite. It was embroidered with various star patterns, several of which Forest didn’t recognise. According to Brook, she had it long before Forest was born.

 _“Where did you get it?”_ He had asked her once.

Brook had remained silent for the longest. _“I need some time alone,”_ She had eventually said. He could tell her voice was choked up with tears at the time.

He knew she was likely never going to answer, so he never brought it up again. But it was clear to him that the cushion meant a lot to her, so Forest was careful to make sure nothing happened to it. _Besides, it looks really pretty, either way._ As he sat down on the cushion next to it, he held it in his arms, slightly resting his head on it. Violet instead walked over to the table, opening the file as soon as she sat down.

Daffodil let out a groan. “Violet, what are you doing?”

“Multi-tasking.” She didn’t look up.

Sighing, Daffodil glanced back at Forest and Moth. “She’s more into this than I thought, which was…really, _really_ into this. I wouldn’t bother with her right now.” From the table, Violet let out a snort of laughter.

Moth ignored them both, instead turning to Forest. “So…when do you think your mom will be back?”

Shrugging, Forest dug his chin further into his cushion. “Well, she’s probably gathering the rest of the banished and bringing them back here. Do you really think she’d only be gone for a day or two?”

“Well, no…I was asking in case you wanted to stay with me and Chipmunk until she comes back,” Moth admitted shyly.

 _Oh. So that’s what that question was about._ Moth often offered to let Forest stay with him and his brothers whenever it seemed Brook would be out for a while. Forest wasn’t exactly sure why he kept offering, especially when Forest was certain he could look after himself at this point, but it did feel nice to know that Moth was looking out for him. _In a way._

Forest shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, I’ll consider it.” The genuine grin on Moth’s face made Forest’s cheeks flush in response. _I…guess he’s just happy I’m considering it this time? I can take care of myself, though…_

Daffodil raised an eyebrow. “Seems kind of lonely being here, all by yourself. I know you can take care of yourself, but…”

 _It is!_ He wasn’t going to say that out loud, though - it would just encourage them to offer to come over more or offer to let him stay over. _Well, except for Violet…not like I’d want to stay at her place. Her dads are nice, but she’s not._ Forest was used to his mom having to leave for patrols, and he knew it was part of keeping Valor safe and functioning properly. _I just…wish she’d stay home more often. I don’t like worrying about possibly losing her…she’s the only family I have._

“You guys don’t need to worry about me,” He finally responded, choosing his words carefully. “I have to do Wingwatcher stuff too, remember? And it’s not like I’m going to be by myself all the time.”

Moth didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue. “Alright, but my offer still stands.” _And I’m not going to actually stay with you because I doubt it’ll be_ that _long, but because I don’t want to hurt you, I’m not going to say anything else._

The uncomfortable silence between them loomed over their heads. _I’m honestly not sure what they expected when they asked to come over. It’s not like I try to set stuff on fire on purpose…and it’s not really as fun doing stupid stuff whenever mom is out._

A rustling of some papers caught his attention. “What?” Violet murmured to herself. Daffodil also seemed to overhear, bounding over to Violet, curious. Forest followed her, as did Moth - he really didn’t see the point in searching for information on something that was dealt with, but he couldn’t deny that he was also curious.

Daffodil looked concerned. “What’s wrong, Vivi?”

Violet simply glared at her a bit - Forest guessed it was for the nickname. She instead dramatically flourished her hand at the file. “Apparently Heath had been suspecting something between the Indestructible City and the Wingwatchers a fair amount of time before issuing the arrests.” She glanced at Forest briefly. “How did your mom get these documents?”

“Well, I remember her heading off on one of my days off. She said she was ‘visiting a friend,’ but I guess it was to take her files back from Heath.” _Not to mention the look on her face that day…yeesh._

Moth hummed quietly in agreement. “Heath taking her stuff sounds like something he’d do, yeah.”

Closing the file, Violet grimaced, still vaguely surprised. “I’m honestly a bit shocked, if anything. I think some banishments are related to his paranoia of this specific thing, like Azalea’s.”

Scoffing to himself, Moth crossed his arms. “Why, though? He always could’ve lied, like he always does. It’s what he did with Pine apparently, and it’s what he did when banishing my parents.”

Daffodil frowned. “That’s definitely a possibility - I think it’s mostly just paranoia, but Violet’s probably onto something.”

“I _am_ onto something!” Violet huffed. “I certainly don’t remember Azalea or Aster doing anything worthy of being banished - specifically to the public eye.”

Moth shrugged slightly. “You could always be remembering wrong. It’s been more than a few years since they were banished.”

Violet shot out of her seat, glaring at him. “I still think it’s worth looking into.”

Not giving her a single glance, he walked back over to the cushions. “If you want to waste your time, then by all means, go ahead.”

Violet’s gaze remained on him for a long moment, which worried Forest. _She probably isn’t going to start a fight with him, but…_ She rested her forehead on the palm of her hand, prompting Daffodil to lightly rub her shoulder.

“I just want to know what the deal with this is. I want to know the whole thing,” She muttered.

Daffodil sighed to herself, nodding. “I get that. I’m not really sure if this is a good idea, but if you want help, I’m willing.” _Uh…is it really a good idea to suggest that Violet needs help?_

Letting out a soft exhale, Violet didn’t seem angry. “Thanks.”

 _She…isn’t angry, but she doesn’t sound okay._ Forest had noticed that Violet had seemed more out of things since being released from prison. _And even more so from Ivy leaving Valor. I can’t blame her for that…if my mom left Valor for that long, I’d be upset as well._

Daffodil smiled at Violet in reply, causing Violet to blush - though a faint smile made it’s way on her face. _Wait…I knew they were best friends, but…this feels like it’s a bit more than that._ Ignoring the small prick of jealousy, he glanced at Daffodil, hoping for answers. Violet seemed to pick up on it, gesturing to Daffodil.

Groaning, Daffodil took Forest’s hand. “We need to talk in private.”

Unable to decline, Forest simply let Daffodil drag him into a more secluded part of the cave. _I guess that’s one way to get privacy…even though she could’ve just asked-_ He tried to pay it no mind, however. Either way, it seemed like he was going to get some sort of explanation.

He spoke up first. “So…what was that about?”

“I…don’t cut me off, alright? I’ll explain everything, I swear.” _I mean, I wasn’t going to, but sure._ She took in a deep breath. “Well…I’ll just be honest. I’m not going to be your date to the Wingwatchers dance. I wasn’t sure about a lot of stuff and I wasn’t entirely sure about how I felt about Violet until…well, Moth decided it would be a great idea to start teasing me about her and Ivy, and then I got worried about her feelings towards me and - sorry about this being really sudden, Forest.”

 _That was…a lot._ If Forest was being honest to himself, he was at least somewhat frustrated. Wasn’t the dance in a few days? _Or at least, it’s supposed to be._ Daffodil had initially told him she had to think about it, and even if he now had a solid answer, he couldn’t help but feel upset that it ended up being a ‘no’ after all. _I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up._

He sighed. “At least you told me before the dance.”

Daffodil avoided his gaze. “If you’re angry or frustrated with me, I get it. Just…please don’t yell at me?”

“I’m not going to yell at you! I just…wish you told me earlier,” Forest replied. “I’m fine with being just friends.” _Even though I really, really hoped you liked me back, despite me being…well, me._

Smiling weakly, she chuckled softly. “Yeah, that’s fine with me as well.”

After a bit of awkward silence ensued for a bit before Forest spoke up again. “So I’m guessing you and Violet are going to dance together, right?” _Does Violet even know how to dance?_

“Yep!” Daffodil nodded, her cheeks flushed. “She’s going to be so impressed by my dancing this time, I just know it! I mean, I’m obviously the the best dancer out of me, Ivy, and Violet - Ivy’s convinced, but Violet just won’t admit it. So I have no doubt that I’ll win her over during the dance!”

 _I’m not surprised she’s been looking forwards to this, whether it’s because she’ll be dancing with Violet or not. She just really loves dancing, I guess._ Forest wasn’t particularly much of a dancer, and only really asked Daffodil because Moth convinced him it’d be a good way to get his feelings across to her. _On the bright side, I don’t really have to dance. I’m sure Daffodil would’ve gotten me to dance if she had been my date…or would I still have to worry about that?_

Daffodil gently nudged his shoulder. “You still plan on going, right?”

“Probably. My mom or Moth will likely end up dragging me there anyways,” He responded, unable to wipe the grin off of his face. He vividly remembered how excited his mom had been when he told her that he wanted to become a Wingwatcher - her taking him along with for any Wingwatcher events apprentices were welcome to was something he expected, and always made him feel warm from head to toe when he thought about it.

Daffodil laughed, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, Moth definitely would do that, too.”

Forest frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to imply?”

Her only response was more laughter, coupled with her walking back over to Violet. Forest only sighed, though he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. _I just hope mom and the others are alright. And hopefully they get back soon._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what the ending probably makes more sense with the context of my Daffiolet fic but ah whatever i did what i wanted to with this Forest pov. i do want to say now in the case that i'm unavailable for a good portion of this month that i might be moving soon, so if chapters don't come as quickly or in the typical two weeks i take to write chapters, that's why. i do have a more precise idea for chapters 15-19 and have figured out the povs for chapters 20 and 21, so there shouldn't be much struggle either way, but just in case i'll say it anyways.


	15. Chapter 15

**BROOK**

Brook hauled herself up to another branch, taking a moment to catch her breath. The wind barely grazed against her hair and skin, though it bothered her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel a bit cold, however. The apple tree’s leaves gently swayed with the breeze. _Moons, I hope none of them fall…_ Glancing back down at the ground, she let herself grin smugly as Lark and Petal watched.

“Brook, I swear to the moons that you’ll be the death of me!” Lark groaned, clenching her fists.

Petal nudged Lark’s shoulder, laughing. “Brook’s still intact though, right?”

“Yeah, Lark!” Brook cut in before Lark could reply. “Though I’m flattered that I’m going to end up being the cause of your death. I mean, me, Brook? Really?”

Lark narrowed her eyes. “That’s not something you should be proud of and you know it!” She took another step to the tree trunk. “Get down here before you fall!”

Sticking her tongue out at Lark, Brook instead climbed a bit higher. _She worries too much about me. For the moons’ sake, I’m a fully fledged Wingwatcher, not an apprentice!_ Her gaze now locked on a nearby apple, she carefully made her way towards it. _And besides, she’ll be changing her tune once I manage to collect a few apples on my own. Both of them will be so impressed with me!_

Annoyed, Lark crossed her arms. “I think there’s a better way to get apples than this.”

“Well, this is faster and besides…getting on your nerves is the highlight of my day,” Brook replied, smirking at Lark.

Huffing, Lark whipped around to face Petal. “Petal! Convince her to stop before she gets hurt!” She demanded.

Petal shrugged, smiling awkwardly. “Well, everything looks pretty fine right now. I wouldn’t worry too much. And besides, Brook’s a full Wingwatcher now! She knows what she’s doing! …Or at least, I hope so.”

Rolling her eyes, Lark glowered Brook. “If you break anything, I’m not going to pity you one bit.”

Brook returned the gesture, grabbing onto another branch. _Oh, whatever. She knows I’m not going to break anything if I’m careful, which I_ am being _. Lark’s just being a worrywart._ Though she was confident nothing bad would happen, she could somewhat see why Lark would have some concerns. Rose was a far better climber than her, and it didn’t help that Brook’s main reason for climbing the tree in the first place was to impress both Petal and Lark. _A ridiculous attempt at that, but…_

She reached for a nearby apple, pawing lightly at it. Only her fingertip managed to touch it, but despite that, the apple didn’t move one bit. Letting out something of a growl, Brook shifted closer to it on her branch. Ignoring the shaking of the branch, she inched towards it, her heartbeat racing. With a grunt, she swiped at the apple, causing it to hurtle towards the ground. She yelped, now tightly gripping the branch upon seeing the ground. Petal caught the apple, jumping onto her stomach to reach it. Lark gave them both a disapproving sniff.

“Are you both serious? Brook, I hope you know how dangerous that was!”

Petal shrugged. “I think she’s well aware, Lark. But do we really need to gather _more_ apples? We did this yesterday…”

Catching her breath, Brook glanced at another branch overhead her, eyeing the apples. “It’s mid autumn, Petal. We might as well take these before it ends.” Carefully grabbing onto the branch, she smiled to herself. “Besides, we’ll have some leftover, so we can keep these for ourselves!”

Lark crossed her arms. “That seems incredibly selfish.”

“That’s why we’ll get enough to have leftovers for us! Commander Sparrow won’t mind if we get a few without ordering us to,” Brook retorted, leaning slightly against the trunk for balance. “So don’t worry about it.”

Although she didn’t look convinced, Lark didn’t argue back. Petal gently nudged Lark’s shoulder, grabbing her attention.

She grinned awkwardly at her. “Look on the bright side, Lark. We can make our own cider after this!” Petal wrapped an arm around her shoulders, chuckling. “We can throw our own private party, without any adults bossing us around or everyone stealing all the cider before we can get any. It’ll be great!”

Lark smiled a little. “That…doesn’t sound too bad, actually. I wouldn’t mind doing that.”

Unable to resist letting out a few giggles, Brook smiled back at them, her chest light and airy. _That sounds like a good plan. I guess this wasn’t another ridiculous idea after all!_ Brook settled onto a higher branch, eyeing another apple. Hopefully she wouldn’t fall out of the tree…

…

Blinking out the dust from her eyes, Brook had to hold back tears as she stared at the charred apple tree. _It’s gone. Even the place that meant the most to her is destroyed._ She felt a shudder run through her body - she clenched her fists. _Why couldn’t something she loved here at least stay…?_ Her shoulders tensed upon hearing footsteps.

“Commander, are you feeling any better?” _Foxglove._ Brook glanced at her, sighing. Foxglove stopped walking, giving her a sympathetic look.

Brook didn’t meet her gaze. “Are the others getting impatient?”

Foxglove grimaced. “Well, mostly just Yarrow and Azalea, but that’s normal for them, but…we all understand if you need more time, Commander.”

Crossing her arms, Brook exhaled softly. “I…see. I apologise for making you all wait for so long.”

“Commander, with all due respect, apologising is absolutely ridiculous,” Foxglove replied, her tone firm. Brook blinked in shock. “You’re human too, and I know you lost a lot when the old town was destroyed. I can’t imagine what it’s like, but…I can imagine that it has been weighing heavily on you.”

 _So…Foxglove knows too, huh?_ “Was I really that obvious?”

Foxglove shook her head. “No, I just…it’s gotten easier for me to tell with you over the years.” She gently nudged Brook’s shoulder. “And um…Commander? I know you don’t like telling others your problems, but…I hope you know that you can always open up to us about it.”

 _What you mean is, ‘Brook, please stop hiding this from me and actually talk to me about it because I care about you.’_ But Brook wasn’t complaining. While she knew that she should talk to someone about it, she still felt like she would be burdening them with her problems. _And besides…do they really want to hear me talk about my family? Or…Petal?_

“I’ll consider it,” Brook said flatly, already making her way back towards the ruins. _Barely any of them know who Petal is. I don’t want to explain her again…_

She had made it a point to not talk about her family or Petal to anyone, except those who knew them at the time - she didn’t want to explain the disagreements she had with her parents, the fights she’d gotten into with her siblings…and it cut her whenever she had to once again acknowledge that she would never reconcile with them. And she especially didn’t want to reminisce on Petal - her guilt, her memories, or the time they spent together doing nothing.

_Or the time we spent together with Lark and Rose, when we were all friends…and when our biggest worry was getting in trouble with Commander Sparrow for pulling another dumb prank on Heath._

Foxglove had rushed to catch up with Brook, now walking by her side. Brook could practically feel Foxglove’s concern radiating off of her - she tried to pay it no mind. _I’m glad she’s worried, but…we have more important things to worry about right now._ Climbing over a pile of bricks and charred wood, she carefully made her way down, avoiding stepping on anything that looked especially precarious. Foxglove waited atop the pile, scanning the sky for any dragons. Letting out a quiet hum, Foxglove followed Brook down after a moment of silence.

Brook raised an eyebrow. “See anything?”

She shook her head. “Not really. Odd, considering everything.”

 _I guess Ivy really was set on changing the world, huh…?_ Ivy had explained everything to them later that day, and honestly, Brook still had her doubts. _As in, making it possible for us to peacefully co-exist with them is impossible._ She wasn’t going to put Ivy down for it - it wasn’t like she could stop her, either. _If she wants to chase a dream, then that’s on her. I just hope she doesn’t get herself killed…_

Spotting a two figures up ahead, Brook hastened her pace. Foxglove did the same, though she hesitated for a moment. One of them turned around upon noticing Brook - it was Yarrow. He had an impatient scowl on his face that reminded Brook of Azalea’s - though he didn’t seem too annoyed. Azalea was also with him, now purposefully ignoring Brook. _She’s…not going to let that go. And she’s not going to let me explain it, either._

Yarrow tilted his head slightly. “You doing any better, Commander?”

“Could be doing better,” Brook replied, her shoulders slumped slightly. “Where’d the others go?”

He took a brief glance behind his shoulder, then turned back to her. “Split up. We didn’t know when you’d be back, so we went ahead and made a decision.”

 _Ah. I’m at fault for that._ She wanted to apologise knew that Foxglove wouldn’t like it much if she did so. _And neither would Yarrow, if I’m being honest…_ Brook instead took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions, at least for a brief second. _Just focus on this right now, Brook. Once this is over you’ll have an entire evening to yourself to cry into a pillow._

“I’m guessing they went to get the banished?” Brook eventually asked. He nodded.

“They wanted us to look for anyone else who might’ve been left here, just in case,” Foxglove spoke up. “Pine didn’t want to accidentally leave anyone behind.”

_That makes sense, I suppose. And Squirrel going with Pine also doesn’t shock me…_

Brook glanced at Azalea, who was leaning against a crumbling wall, her arms crossed. “Azalea? Do you mind taking the lead?”

Azalea glowered Brook for a moment before storming ahead, not paying Brook a second glance. _I…_ Grimacing, Brook just began to follow her, gesturing to Foxglove and Yarrow to go ahead.

…

Some time had passed since Azalea had taken off. Brook was walking next to her, though any attempt she made to make conversation was ignored or received an eye roll in response. Yarrow and Foxglove were behind them - Brook could overhear their conversation, though she wasn’t entirely engrossed in it.

Brook cleared her throat. “ _Azalea_. Can you listen to me, just this once?”

She turned around to scowl at her. “Last time I listened to you, you told me you did _nothing_ about Heath.” Letting out a low grumble, she kicked a pebble across the ground. “I don’t care what your excuse is. The whole town of Valor was perfectly content with nothing happening to him, apparently. And besides, I’m sure they don’t want me there, either. You heard the shouting to get rid of me at my banishment, didn’t you? They don’t want anything to do with me, and I don’t want anything else to do with them.”

As Azalea took off once more, Brook let out a heavy sigh. _I really messed that up, didn’t I?_ She could understand what Azalea meant, though. She couldn’t blame any of the banished for not wanting to return to Valor. _Even if Heath’s not the lord any more, his actions are still hurting people. I know there was nothing I could really do, but…_

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. It was Yarrow, who was still staring after Azalea.

“I wouldn’t bother trying to explain to her. It isn’t going to change her mind. She’s always been really stubborn,” Yarrow mumbled.

 _Yeah, I can see who you got your stubbornness from, too._ She already knew how stubborn Azalea could be - she had dealt with Azalea as an _apprentice_ , for three moons’ sake. Brook wasn’t going to voice her annoyance, however. It seemed like Yarrow was just trying to be genuine. He had already sped up a bit to catch up with Azalea - she guessed he just wanted to spend more time with her. _Well, even if it isn’t the best time, he does deserve it. He hasn’t seen Azalea in years, now that I think about it…_

Foxglove was also now ahead of her, her arms crossed. Brook let out a soft exhale. _I miss patrols like this,_ She thought absentmindedly. _Ones where there didn’t seem to be that many dragons in the sky, where most patrols were us just gathering supplies for the village…_ She felt warm just thinking about it. All the trouble she had gotten into with Petal, the dumb inside jokes she and Petal had come up with, Sparrow constantly reprimanding them for their reckless behaviour…even if Brook wasn’t the best apprentice, she missed it. _All these current Wingwatchers won’t get to understand what it was like back then. And it’s his fault._

“Hmm? Brook?” It was Foxglove. Brook looked up, surprised. “Are you thinking about something?”

Brook shrugged. “Thinking about the old village. And Petal.”

Foxglove raised an eyebrow. “Were you both close?”

A sad smile spread onto Brook’s face. “Closer than best friends. This place reminds me of all the things she loved.”

“Aww.” Foxglove returned the smile. “I don’t think I’ll get _that_ kind of feeling for someone, but…I understand what you mean. She sounds nice.”

 _She was amazing._ Brook let out a quiet laugh, nodding. _I wish Foxglove could’ve met her. I think she would’ve liked Petal._ Before Brook could respond, Foxglove stopped suddenly - Brook did the same, confused. She glanced up at the pile of debris in front of her - Azalea stood up top, completely still.

“Azalea? What’s wrong?” Yarrow called to her. She didn’t look at him.

Hesitantly, Brook made her way towards the pile - she almost slipped, but managed to reach Azalea. A few tears were streaming down Azalea’s face. _It…has to be something if Azalea of all people is crying._ Brook glanced down in the same direction as Azalea, inhaling sharply. Below them was a girl who looked about Azalea’s age, with dyed purple hair - she had on a torn Wingwatcher uniform, wearing a half sewn tunic over it. The girl looked up at them, relieved.

Azalea was the first to speak. “I-It’s Aster.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this technically marks the end of part one - and yes, i have honestly been waiting for a very, very long time to introduce Aster as this has been on my list of things i really wanted to include for this story for a while now, haha- the next chapter will likely be Wren's, and i'm honestly hoping to get into Rowan's chapters more her and her conflicts are really interesting to write (and frankly, there really isn't too much i need to cover before getting into the more plot heavy stuff, which i'm very excited to get into!). so i hope people don't mind that, as i probably won't be going over Wren and co. as much as Brook and Rowan - Brook for plot reasons and Rowan because i feel like she was neglected a bit here in part one, not to mention that i really want to explore characters like Camellia and Thyme more
> 
> i hope y'all don't mind this rambling and hopefully i didn't spoil too much for what i have planned? but i _am_ very excited to get onto the more plot heavy chapters :)


	16. Chapter 16

**WREN**

Wren held in a few fits of laughter as Leaf fumbled with his words. _This has to be my best idea yet._ She was sitting down in front of him, reorganising the items in her knapsack. Various items such as books and a few extra clothes she had gotten during her short time in Valor. They were taking something of a break before setting off later in the morning - in the meanwhile, Wren had decided to sort out her equipment. _I’m guessing Ivy begged Sky to take her for a ride…they’ve been out for a while._

She was getting somewhat worried about them, but she knew they wouldn’t go too far. _And honestly, Leaf would’ve put up more of a fuss about leaving them both alone if it was dangerous._ There didn’t seem to be too many dragons up at daybreak, anyhow. _Or humans, if Ivy’s sleeping patterns are anything to go by…_

“…Wren, I don’t think I’m saying this properly,” Leaf eventually said, grimacing. “Are you _sure_ you have the pronunciation right? This doesn't even sound like a word.”

Taking off her glove, she threw it at him, scoffing. “Of course I have it right!” _Or at least, I really hope I do._

Leaf threw it back at her, hitting her in the face. “What does it even _mean_ ? I don’t understand any of it! This is _definitely_ more of a you and Ivy thing than a you and me thing, Wren.”

Resisting the urge to chuck her glove at him again, Wren crossed her arms. “Maybe, but if you tried harder, we could make it more of a group activity!”

“I think Ivy prefers it being a more one on one thing, if you get what I mean,” Leaf replied, a smirk on his face.

Wren rolled her eyes, now smacking his leg with one of her books. “Shut up!”

“Hey, I was just joking!” He yelped, though his protests were riddled with laughter. Once he stopped laughing, he took a moment to catch his breath. “But my other question?”

Glancing around briefly, Wren tried to hold back a grin. “It means hello. You should at least know a basic greeting.”

Leaf narrowed his eyes at her. “Now you just sound suspicious.”

Wren mocked offense. “Me? Suspicious? How dare you suggest that!”

Only raising an eyebrow, Leaf huffed. “I’m going to ask Ivy and Sky for further confirmation, then.”

“Well, you’ll find that they’ll tell you the same exact thing. It definitely means hello,” Wren retorted, glaring at him.

“ _See_? Suspicious!” He snapped, pointing at her.

 _I am NOT,_ She thought indignantly. She went back to sorting out her equipment, not bothering to argue. _I need to finish doing this before tormenting Leaf more, anyways. Hopefully he doesn’t_ actually _ask Sky what it means…Ivy probably won’t know, but she wouldn’t exactly like it, either…_

Before long, Wren overheard footsteps rushing in their direction. Glancing from the corner of her eye, she spotted Ivy, with Sky walking alongside her.

“That was _great_!” Ivy exclaimed, bouncing around a bit. “I mean, it’s always great whenever we decide to fly, but-”

Sky laughed. “No, I get what you mean. I’m glad you enjoyed it!”

Ivy smiled back at him, also giggling. Soon she came rushing over to them, with Sky following her. She glanced at Wren, tilting her head.

“Oh, were you guys busy?”

Shaking her head, Wren patted on the ground, gesturing for Ivy to sit. Ivy gave Wren a small smile, sitting next to her. She looked over at Leaf, vaguely confused.

“Why-”

“Wren was teaching me some Dragon,” He answered before she could finish. “Supposedly, anyways…”

Ivy only seemed more confused. “Supposedly? What does that even mean…? You’re either learning Dragon or you aren’t.”

Wren smirked at him, slightly puffing out her chest. “I believe my point has been proven.”

Leaf glared at her for the longest time, then immediately turned to Ivy. “Hey, Ivy. Tell me this - what does _grrroarghh_ mean?” Wren froze up. _Crap, I didn’t think he’d actually ask-_

“I…don’t know that one, actually.” Turning to Wren, she pouted a little. “Why didn’t you teach me that one?”

 _Because I’m not teaching you curse words in Dragon! You would get mad at me if you found out, anyways-_ Wren didn’t immediately answer, however - she wanted to avoid the possibility of getting caught as much as she possibly could. _I need to phrase this in a way that won’t make anyone annoyed, and probably in a way that also avoids Ivy getting more pouty than usual…_

Before Wren could reply, Sky responded first. “Leaf, what was that word Wren taught you?”

“It was something along the lines of _grrroarghh_ , I’m sure of it,” He repeated. _Oh, come on! He could at least have the decency to mess up the pronunciation!_ “She told me it means hello.”

Ivy blinked at Wren. “Wait, but- you told me-” Stopping suddenly, she crossed her arms. “ _Wren_.”

Wren avoided her gaze. “What do you mean, ‘Wren’? All I did was teach him an alternate way of saying hello.” _Yep. That's it. Definitely. Now please stop asking._

Sky stared at Leaf for a moment, then glanced back at Wren. “ _Why_ did you teach him that?” _Because I will never not find teaching Leaf swears hilarious-_

Ivy seemed semi-concerned. “Wait, what did you even teach him?”

Grimacing, Wren fidgeted slightly. “I may or may not have taught Leaf a swear. In Dragon.”

“Wren!” Ivy groaned.

Inching back, Wren held her hands up. “Hey, I got bored! You can’t blame _me_ for that, right?”

“I definitely can!” Ivy shot back, shoving her. Wren rolled her eyes, pushing Ivy back.

Sky raised a brow. “How is that even educational? And where did you even _learn_ that?”

“How did you learn that word, then?” Wren retorted.

“The same way I learned all that Dragon a while ago, travelling with that group of dragons,” Sky explained. “What’s your excuse?”

Wren shrugged. “Overheard it from some dragons while looking for you.”

Sky sighed in exasperation. “Okay, but that doesn't mean you should repeat it-”

“But how else will I learn it?” Wren argued, a wide grin on her face.

“Um, just so you guys know, I don’t mind Wren teaching me swears in another language,” Leaf added meekly.

Ivy stared at him quizzically. “…But you don’t even know what it means.”

Leaf was about to argue, but didn't bother. “Fair. What does it mean, Wren?”

“I am _not_ explaining it around Ivy, Leaf!” She snapped, feeling her cheeks heat up.

Ivy's eyes widened. “Is it really that bad?”

Wren shook her head. “No, it’s just…” _As one of the less dirty minded of us, I want you to stay that way._ “I really…don’t want to explain it. It’s…pretty gross.”

Her face now a grimace, Ivy glanced at the ground. “Oh. Eww.”

“I have a few guesses to what it is, but I’m not saying any of them out loud,” Leaf muttered.

Ivy glared at him. “Moons, I’d hope not!”

Leaf laughed, rolling his eyes. “Alright, jeez! Remind me to never tell you any dirty jokes.”

“I’ll tell you later,” Wren replied in a whisper. _Hopefully without Ivy eavesdropping on us._ She looked back at her, raising an eyebrow. “So…how was your flight?”

Ivy’s face lit up. “It was amazing! It feels so nice to be up in the air like that!” Leaf was busy cleaning up his sword, but Wren could spot the visible grimace on his face. “It was like I was a bird!”

Wren chuckled. “Well, it does feel like that, yeah.”

“I wish humans could fly like that. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“Hmm…yeah, that actually would sound pretty fun!” Wren nodded; from the corner of her eye, she could see Leaf mouthing ‘no.’ _At least he’s mostly keeping it to himself this time._

She giggled, glancing up at the sky. “Maybe it’s possible?”

 _Probably not, but…considering you and Leaf managed to figure out some of what that golden dragon was trying to explain to you…I think you could probably figure it out._ “Maybe.”

Ivy hummed quietly. “I wonder how it’d work…I want to find that out one day, I think.” _You want to find out a lot of things, Ivy…_

“Well, I bet that you will. If you want to, of course,” Wren responded, returning her attention to her knapsack.

Resting her chin on Wren’s shoulder, Ivy smiled a little. “You really think so?”

Wren smiled back. “Yeah, I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i ended up finishing this chapter sooner mainly because yes it's intended to be shorter (…and because i may or may not have written an entire portion of it during school because i was bored). whatever word Wren taught Leaf can be left up to interpretation, i'll leave it at that
> 
> and because i probably screwed up my wording in the last note since i wrote it past midnight (i think?), just reclarifying that i'm not going to focus on Wren's chapters as much as there isn't much i need/want to cover before they get involved into the plot compared to Brook (and Rowan i explained in the last chapter's note).


End file.
